Middle East and Africa Wearable Sensors Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

Middle East and Africa Wearable Sensors Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The Middle East and Africa Wearable Sensor market is expected to register a CAGR of 12.1% over the forecast period. Wearable sensors are gaining popularity in digital systems like health monitoring systems due to ongoing developments in modern technologies and miniature circuits. Wearable technology generally includes sensors and wireless connections, allowing users to monitor, track, and analyze data. Various accessories, including wristbands, eyeglasses, headphones, and smartphones, are combined with these wearable sensor systems.

Key Highlights

• Increased spending on consumer electronics, improved lifestyles, and a surge in urbanization has led to the region's rise in health and safety awareness. With rising disposable incomes, devices like smart wristbands, smartwatches, fitness trackers, VR headsets, activity trackers, sports watches, healthcare applications, enterprise, and industrial applications, are gaining huge traction.
• According to Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, consumer spending in Saudi Arabia increased to SAR 343,374 Million in the first quarter of 2022 from SAR 333,555 Million in the fourth quarter of 2021. Furthermore, According to OECD, Israel’s economy will grow by 4.9% in 2022 and 4% in 2023.
• One significant factor anticipated to drive the wearable sensors market during the forecast period is the growing elderly population. Over the coming decades, Saudi Arabia's aging population will rapidly grow. The senior population in Saudi Arabia will rise from 5.6% in 2017 to 22.9% by 2050, according to UN projections. Furthermore, according to the United nations population fund, Egypt is undergoing a demographic transition as the number of people over 60 is predicted to more than double from 8.4 million (8% of the overall population) to 22 million between 2020 and 2050 (14%).
• COVID-19 has changed the world and pushed countries to adopt new technology and search for practical and cost-effective solutions to manage the pandemic and reduce its negative impacts on the economy and people’s lives. The healthcare sector in the region has faced critical issues like patient overload, compromised safety of healthcare workers, and healthcare resource shortages. Smart wearable devices that use IoT technology can enable patients to track their own health and help healthcare providers deliver immediate care when needed. These devices can also monitor and record symptoms and then analyze them to predict disease. Many countries in the region, like Saudi Arabia - with its vision 2030, have implemented the IoT in their health sectors and leveraged its benefits to fight COVID-19.
• Further, the market is currently flooded with smart, Internet-connected products, and the number is expanding quickly. The primary condition for enabling effective sensor data and information exchange is standardization. A few businesses have developed standards for sensor communication. For example, the OGC's Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) measures satisfy the need for improved sensor connectivity in extremely complicated and basic applications. Thousands of geospatial applications that use the OGC or other standards may easily incorporate this data thanks to the SWE standards. Interoperability problems are also brought on by the absence of universal standards for sensor communication.

Key Market TrendsThe Healthcare Sector is Expected to Drive the Market's Growth

• With the extended impact of the pandemic being felt by many within the healthcare community, hospitals, offices, and clinics have found themselves inundated with scans, simultaneously having to modify workflows to keep healthcare staff and patients safe. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought into sharp focus the need to harness and leverage digital infrastructure for remote patient monitoring.
• According to a survey published by AppDynamics in 2022 (a study of more than 12,000 consumers worldwide), a vast majority of people in the UAE intend to adopt more wearable health technology or applications in the next 12 months. The survey found that 88% of respondents in the Gulf country intend to use medical wearables, like Fitbit or smartwatches, in 2023. Further, in the UAE, around 90 percent of respondents said they want access to heart rate, blood pressure, heart rhythms, physical activity, and respiratory rate from a watch or other wearable gadget. Further, UAE respondents overwhelmingly said they believe wearable technology has the potential to transform both personal and public health.
• To cater to the upsurge in demand for healthcare wearable sensors, in March 2022, BioIntelliSense, Inc., a continuous health monitoring and clinical intelligence company, announced its strategic collaboration with Mubadala Health, an integrated healthcare network of Mubadala Investment Company. The collaboration would incorporate BioIntelliSense’s innovative remote care technologies with Mubadala Health’s continuous care model to drive clinical workflow efficiencies, unlock data-driven clinical insights and deliver a personalized care experience.
• The partnership would also offer BioIntelliSense an opportunity to apply the BioSticker and BioButtonwearable medical devices across multiple care settings, make early detection simple, and empower care teams with personalized clinical intelligence that enables informed proactive interventions.
• Further, in June 2021, Cardiac Insight, Inc., a healthcare innovator specializing in wearable cardiac sensors and proprietary software that automatically analyzes electrocardiogram (ECG) data to improve early detection and diagnosis of cardiac arrhythmias, such as atrial fibrillation (AFib), launched its Cardea SOLO ECG System at Arab Health 2021, the largest healthcare exhibition in the Middle East. Cardea SOLO combines a single-use patient-friendly wearable ECG sensor with 100% in-clinic automated software managed by clinicians. It also includes comprehensive report generation and clinical editing tools for the full disclosure data, creating efficiencies and reducing processing time for clinicians. The platform facilitates improved patient care and better patient compliance while keeping patient data securely in-house and enhancing overall cybersecurity for hospitals and clinicians, including cardiologists and electrophysiologists.
• The increasing health concerns like heart ailments, diabetes, cancer, and respiratory diseases in the region are likely to drive the population towards the adoption of wearable sensors.

Increasing Awareness of Health and Fitness is Expected to Witness a High Market Growth

• A dedicated focus on getting in shape and building the body’s immunity, as well as managing stress properly, have all driven a surge in the popularity of wearables in the fitness category. Smartwatches are playing a key role in this regard by becoming extensions of the user’s body, as well as being a smartphone accessory. These devices can be worn all day and work as the user’s smart assistant to aid them to actively managing their health while exploring immersive application experiences.
• In March 2022, Huawei and SFA (Saudi Sports for All Federation) joined forces to promote advanced wearable devices designed specifically for runners. The SFA organized a marathon event to promote well-being and increase physical activity levels across the population in line with the Saudi Vision 2030 objectives. As a result, more than 10,000 runners participated in the inaugural marathon. Huawei gifted all marathon participants with a 200 SAR voucher to buy anything from the official Huawei website, such as the stunning HUAWEI WATCH GT Series, including the newly launched company’s first professional running watch, the HUAWEI WATCH GT Runner, which has a wide range of health and well-being monitoring features as well as dozens of sport modes to help users level up their fitness. Such initiatives spread awareness about the latest wearable sensors to monitor health and fitness, thereby driving the growth of the studied market.
• The application of these sensors in fitness bands is witnessing robust growth in the region, owing to its affordability and ease of use. To that end, in May 2021, HONOR announced the availability of the HONOR Band 6 in the UAE, the latest addition to HONOR’s wearable lineup. Equipped with a 1.47-inch AMOLED display and packed full of health and fitness management functions with a 14-day battery life, the HONOR Band 6 facilitates its users to keep better tabs on their mental and physical well-being.
• In April 2021, Huawei announced the newest member of its HUAWEI Band Series – the HUAWEI Band 6 for the UAE market. With consumers increasingly demanding more from their wearable devices, the new HUAWEI Band 6 has been greatly enhanced with health and fitness monitoring, a fashionable design, and extended battery life to provide a smartwatch-like experience at the friendlier price point of a smart band. Due to optimized hardware based on the Huawei TruSeenTM 4.0 and a new smart power-saving algorithm, the HUAWEI Band 6 now supports All Day SpO2 monitoring. It tracks users’ health and generates an alert when the blood oxygen level is low, allowing users to take swift action and manage their health proactively. The HUAWEI Band 6 provides continuous, real-time, accurate heart rate, sleep, and stress monitoring. It will also notify the user if their resting heart rate is too high or too low.

Competitive Landscape

The Middle East and Africa Wearable sensor market is moderately consolidated, with the presence of a few major companies like STMicroelectronics, Infineon Technologies AG, Texas Instruments Incorporated, Analog Devices, and many more. The companies are continuously investing in making strategic partnerships and product developments to gain more market share. Some of the recent developments in the market are:

• June 2022 - In its yearly initiative to protect industrial workers from heat-related illnesses during the scorching UAE summer, Emirates Global Aluminium, one of the largest industrial companies outside of oil and gas, revealed that it is testing wearable technology. This year, 50 volunteers who work in EGA's potlines, among the most hotly-worked areas of the business, are wearing gadgets to track vital health markers like core body temperature, heart rate, and perspiration rate. The occupational health team at EGA receives data in real time, along with notifications for any variations that may be of concern.
• October 2021 - Apple announced the launch of the Apple Watch Series 7. The new Apple Watch includes an electrical heart sensor and ECG app, and a Blood Oxygen sensor and app, which are both essential tools for health and wellness. New workout types in watchOS 8 help users stay healthy, active, and connected.

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