6: The Development of Wearable Mobile Health Devices in Promoting Healthy Lifestyles

With the advent of information technology, mobile devices are getting smarter, smaller and more affordable. It has become an essential tool for various kinds of communication nowadays. From sending a message to our family and friends through an online social platform, to hailing a taxi cab on our smartphones, mobile technology has greatly influenced the ways we do things on a daily basis. The types of mobile devices have diversified into categories such as smartphones, tablets and most recently wearable devices. According to Gartner (2014), nine out of 10 smartphone vendors have already entered the wearable device market or about to ship their first product, comparing to only two vendors at that stage two years ago. The global market for wearable devices is expected to grow by nearly 80% annually from 19 million units in 2014 to 112 million units in 2018 (International Data Corporation, 2014).