More than accessories: Smartwatches are now becoming health devices with medical certification
Smartwatches are getting smarter – at least, health-wise.These devices, so far largely considered lifestyle accessories with basic fitness-tracking features mostly shunned by medical practitioners, are increasingly receiving medical certifications from the Centre—making them health devices that alert users against issues such as heart rate fluctuations, sleep disorders and blood pressure anomalies.On 4 December, Apple launched hypertension tracking on its latest Apple Watch Series 11 smartwatch. While the feature does not give a direct blood pressure readout, it monitors a user’s blood oxygen, stress levels and other heart-related parameters to notify them that they may have a potential hypertension issue.The company received government approval to offer this clinical-grade feature in late November, a person aware of the development told Mint, making it only the second consumer-grade smartwatch until now to be approved by New Delhi.Hypertension implies high blood pressure, a condition that potentially damages heart tissues in the long run.
Almost one-third of all Indians suffer from it, according to the National Institutes of Health’s latest statistics.Such features, experts and stakeholders said, represent a rising business opportunity for smartwatch makers as their popularity in India’s consumer market continues to decline. Smartwatch sales fell 34% in 2024, and 28% year-on-year in the first six months of this year.Medical wearable adoption, on the other hand, is rising.
Market research group Imarc said in October that India’s nascent wearable healthcare market, which includes smartwatches, is valued at $1.04 billion—and is projected to rise to $4.2 billion by 2033. India accounts for 2.5% of the world’s wearable
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