9 Mobile Apps To Get You Fit
With more than 100,000 mobile health apps available today, you need help sorting through the fitness contenders. Consider these nine apps.
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Despite its relative infancy, the crowded mobile healthcare app market features a handful of well-established veterans and a plethora of newcomers scrambling for visibility and traction among consumers and medical professionals. The market includes more than 100,000 apps, according to Research2Guidance -- and the flood of new entrants shows no sign of easing, says Ralf-Gordon Jahns, founder of the Berlin-based research firm, in an interview.
"Mobile technology is truly revolutionizing the future of healthcare, and mobile apps in particular have played an important role in improving communication between physicians and patients, increasing adherence to medical prescriptions, helping patients locate good doctors and pharmacies, and encouraging preventative measures," says Jeff Holleran, senior director of Enterprise Product Strategy at BlackBerry. "Both doctors and patients are finding that mobile apps can provide a fast and efficient way to stay in touch and exchange information. Providers are leveraging apps so that they can respond quicker and share data faster. On the consumer side, mobile apps are growing in popularity as people become increasingly more conscious about their health and well-being."
Although some apps have a clear lead in categories such as running, fitness, and nutrition, that hasn't stopped new contenders from releasing their own offerings. They may offer a new perspective -- anything from being chased by zombies to focusing on strength training for women -- or target a specific group of often neglected users, such as owners of BlackBerry or Windows mobile devices.
Health tracker Nudge, for example, recently moved away from Web-based apps in order to focus all its resources on mobile health apps. The developer created an algorithm based on recommendations from the US Department of Agriculture, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the World Health Organization, and applied research from an internal team of health professionals to index data input by users, says Phil Beene, co-founder, in an email.
"This means that no matter what apps, trackers, or wearables a person is using, they can compare an indexed score, called the Nudge Factor, to friends and other users on the app," added Mac Gambill, co-founder of Nudge, in an email. "By tracking dietary intake, hydration, exercise, and sleep duration, as well as syncing with the leading apps and wearables, Nudge is becoming the principal curator and indexer of the best health and fitness apps on the market."
New and existing developers fit into six general categories, Research2Guidance found. They include:
1. Established healthcare players -- such as pharmaceutical, insurance, and healthcare companies -- which represent about 3.4% of app publishers. Usually larger organizations, they typically publish many mHealth apps but have a below-average reach in terms of downloads.
2. App specialists are generally smaller developers that entered mHealth to leverage their software expertise. Although they usually have a small share of medical expertise in-house, they account for 14% of the mHealth app publisher community.
3. Helpers, which represent 32% of this space, are small companies that want to help others. Revenue is secondary, and could be one reason 61% had fewer than 5,000 downloads in 2013.
4. Medical specialists use their expertise to develop mobile apps and claim one fifth of the market. This group had the largest number of companies that earned more than $1 million from their mHealth apps last year.
5. Fitness specialists joined the market to earn money, and they account for 10% of this space. Often they connect to medical databases and sensors and use app development tools.
6. Connectors create value-rich apps that integrate with other apps, sensors, and databases, enabling them to generate the highest average revenue. They account for 18% of the mHealth developer community.
Combined, mHealth apps will be worth about $26 billion by 2017 -- but that's just the beginning of mobile apps' impact on the vast healthcare market, estimated at $6 trillion, Jahns says.
"The $26 billion is the tip of the iceberg. The huge potential is: 'Do apps allow [the healthcare industry] to save costs, for example, hospitals to send out patients earlier so they can use the beds for somebody else? Or do they reduce the amount of doctor visits?' The true potential is reducing costs and making the healthcare market more efficient," he says.
Of course, consumers might argue their goal is losing weight, eating healthier, monitoring medications, or protecting themselves from bugs. In that case, check out some newer mHealth apps on the market and let us know what you think. Which new health and fitness apps would you add to the list? Which ones would you remove? Tell us in the comments.
It's not available yet, but Apple Health will come preloaded on all next-generation iOS devices, as well as via the free upgrade to iOS 8. With such a vast potential market, Apple is expected to shake up the mobile health app market when its first fitness-tracking app enters the arena.
The app tracks heart rate, calories burned, blood sugar, and cholesterol. Users can create emergency cards with contact information, as well as blood type, allergies, and other vital medical data. The Mayo Clinic contributed a wealth of health education for inclusion in the app. In exchange, Mayo hopes to contact healthy consumers via its own app, which can retrieve data from Apple's HealthKit platform.
Apple Health will be available for iOS 8 this fall.
Convert a boring jog around the neighborhood into an immersive running game, as you flee the undead in Zombies, Run! While running, participants automatically collect supplies -- like medicine and water -- they'll need in a zombie apocalypse, then build a village to survive the attack. Simultaneously, the app tracks runners' stats such as calories burned, miles jogged, and zombies evaded.
More than 900,000 users participate in this running game, which has 160-plus missions, can be used outside or on a treadmill, integrates with a runner's own music, and counts while a runner jogs in place at traffic lights.
Zombies, Run! is available for Android and Apple iOS devices. It costs $3.99.
Don't like zombies? BattleSuit Runner Fitness, available in free and premium versions, places the exercise buff in the middle of an action movie, portraying an exosuit-wearing commando trying to save humanity from alien invaders.
The app melds together GPS, story-telling, role-playing games, and action adventure elements with the runner's music and traditional fitness-tracking measures such as heartbeat, speed, and distance.
Battlesuit Runner Fitness is available for Android and Apple platforms. Cost: Free. A fuller-featured version costs 99 cents on both platforms.
In our sleep-deprived society, physicians cannot overemphasize the importance of a regular good night's rest. Ad-free app Sleep by Blake Haas includes 19 soothing sounds, plus accent sounds, designed to lull the senses.
Sleep is available for Windows Phone. Cost: Free. A fuller feature version costs $1.29.
Designed by women, Spitfire Athlete is "a strength training app that empowers women to lift weights and fulfill their greatest potential." The free iOS app includes goal-based training plans, dynamic warm-ups, and mobility-enhancing cool-downs.
The app won "Best iOS App" and "Best Overall App" at the Code Path 2013 Demo Day. Professional athletes and engineers Erin Parker and Nidhi Kulkarni wrote Spitfire Athlete because they were upset with the quality of many available apps, their portrayal of women, and the goals they assumed women aspired to reach, according to a company blog.
Spitfire Athlete is available for Apple devices. Cost: Free.
This is not a kinder, gentler fitness app. Described as "your judgmental fitness overlord," Carrot Fit uses artificial intelligence, sarcasm, ridicule, and bribery to help users lose weight.
The $2.99 app includes a seven-minute workout and unlockable rewards such as additional exercises, a workout calendar, and extra difficulty levels. Profiles allow users to track their progress, create separate exercise and weigh-in reminders, and customize reminder intervals.
Carrot Fit is available for Apple iOS devices. Costs $2.99.
People who want to tone a particular area of their body within a certain time frame can use Sworkit on their Apple or Android devices, desktops, or Kindles. The app takes this information and creates a customized "circuit training workout" based on the individual's body weight.
The app tracks minutes and calories burned, while the Pro version allows users to see previous workout stats and a workout log. Workout options include yoga, strength training, cardio, and stretching. The users can integrate their own music, skip an exercise, or challenge a friend.
Sworkit is available for Android, iOS, and Kindle platforms.
Reflecting the popularity of mobile health apps, Nudge recently phased out its Web app to focus its resources solely on the mobile version of its health tracker and curator platform. The developer, which just released an upgraded iOS version, added more statistics to its dashboard, allowing users to gain additional insight based on USDA, CDC, and WHO recommendations, as well as applied research from an in-house advisory team of sports and health professionals, Nudge said.
Users can see how and why their Nudge Factor has changed over time, and the bottom dashboard screen features daily averages for every aspect of the Nudge Factor, including water, fruit, and vegetable intake, exercise, and sleep. A Curated Apps page includes a list of health and wellness apps.
Mosquitoes carry diseases such as heartworm, malaria, and West Nile virus, and endanger humans and livestock -- as well as cause millions of itchy bites each year. App developer Pico Brothers counters these pesky bugs with its AntiMosquito Sonic Repeller app, which emits a high-frequency sound designed to repel most mosquitoes. The sound is so high most humans won't hear it, according to the developers.
Less smelly and sticky than spray-on mosquito repellents, the app reportedly is a top seller in areas such as Germany, Spain, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Mexico. Both Android and iOS versions were recently updated.
AntiMosquito is available for Android and iOS platforms. The pro version costs 99 cents.
Mosquitoes carry diseases such as heartworm, malaria, and West Nile virus, and endanger humans and livestock -- as well as cause millions of itchy bites each year. App developer Pico Brothers counters these pesky bugs with its AntiMosquito Sonic Repeller app, which emits a high-frequency sound designed to repel most mosquitoes. The sound is so high most humans won't hear it, according to the developers.
Less smelly and sticky than spray-on mosquito repellents, the app reportedly is a top seller in areas such as Germany, Spain, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Mexico. Both Android and iOS versions were recently updated.
AntiMosquito is available for Android and iOS platforms. The pro version costs 99 cents.
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