Are you in HealthCare? Does your company have mHealth in their strategic plan? Are you already executing on your mHealth Plans? If not - you should be here are three simple facts:
1. Smartphones already account for 19.5% of the US wireless subscriber base
2. Smartphones will be used by 83% of wireless subscribers by 2015
3. Within 5 years mobile devices will reach 80% penetration in the Enterprise market
These nuggets were buried in an article on 30 Fast Facts about Smartphones in Baseline Magazine.
Some things you can deduce from these simple facts. Consumers will adopt smartphones faster than enterprises. It is now a consumer technology. The iPhone and Android platforms have rudimentary but fast improving Enterprise Management tool kits yet these platforms represent over 25% of smartphone sales worldwide.
As of December 2009 Wireless use has reached 91% penetration of the US population. Penetration is expected to pass 100% in the next couple of years. Yes, a number of European countries have already passed 100% penetration.
Over 150 billion text messages are sent in the USA each month - yet on the whole we discount the use of this ubiquitous technology.
When you put all this together:
- Typically patients are not at their computers when they are receiving medical services
- Almost everyone has a cellphone that can at least send and receive text messages
- Your mHealth strategy should be a layered approach that combines voice (yes people still make calls!), text messaging and mobile web and custom applications. One approach does not fit all - despite what some people might think - not everyone will have an Android or iPhone smartphone. By combining these solutions you can reach your target audience.
