Global sports and fitness app installations are expected to grow to 248 million in 2017 from 156 million in 2012, a 60 percent rise, according to a recent report from IHS Electronics and Media titled "The World Market for Sports and Fitness Monitors." The three app categories incorporated in the report are running, heart rate, and multi-sport and activity tracking.

Additionally, 62 percent of respondents interested in sports and fitness apps were also prepared to purchase hardware that enhances the functionality of fitness software, according to senior Manager for Consumer and Digital Health Research Shane Walker. Over five years, the research group predicts 250 million sports and fitness sensors and monitors will ship. Consumers are most interested in tracking distance and calories, according to another IHS survey from 2012.

In May, IMS Research a subsidiary of IHS, conducted a survey that predicted sports and fitness monitors, including wearable sensors and running and cycling computers, will hit 56.2 million global shipments in 2017, up from 43.8 million this year.

Last year, an IMS survey found smartphone owners who exercise at least once a week and are interested in sports and fitness apps are are also willing to buy a fitness sensor that connects to an app on his or her phone. IMS interviewed around 400 consumers in the United Kingdom and the US for this survey. About 62.3 percent of the respondents said they were prepared to buy such a sports sensor.

A report conducted by ON World in March found 150 million “mobile sensing health and fitness apps” have been downloaded, and by 2017 this number will have increased to a total of 1.4 billion. Global cumulative revenues for mobile sensing apps and subscriptions will reach $975 million by 2017, the firm said.

For more information about wearable fitness devices, you can listen to the MobiHealthNews July podcast.