Wear it well

Wearable technology will soon become a necessity

Consumers are embracing activity-tracking wristbands, which tell wearers how many steps they took or hours they slept. More than three million were sold in the US alone in the year to last March. Developers like Jawbone and Fitbit collect the information and use it to offer motivational tips and advice on better lifestyle choices.

But in the not-too-distant future, the ability to gather personal data in real time will be vital for critical health services and products.

Health insurers may be early adopters. Discovery, a South African financial services company whose partners include insurers AIA and Prudential, already offers pioneering policies that mine data from wearable technology. Sporty customers can earn discounts of as much as 15 per cent on their health insurance premiums. It's an appealing strategy: 70 per cent of consumers surveyed by PricewaterhouseCoopers said they would wear a device to reduce payments.

This is just the beginning. Applications will become more practical as both hardware and software develop. Devices that measure temperature and blood chemistry could allow doctors to monitor patients from afar. For victims of chronic illness, that could be life-saving, or at least life-changing. Think of diabetics, who could ditch daily blood tests for smart contact lenses that constantly monitor their glucose levels. Google is currently developing prototypes.

Admittedly, there could be some side effects. As soon as technology is capable of gathering truly intimate biometric data, that information becomes vulnerable to theft or misuse. Will the insurance industry refuse coverage to potentially unhealthy clients? Technology developers can only use personal data with express permission from the consumer. But if most healthy people are happy to share their data, those who opt out may be conspicuous.

These are big questions, but not big enough to stall the technology's rise. Research group International Data Corporation says sales of wearable tech trebled in 2014 from a year earlier - and the market could increase more than five-fold to over 100 million units by 2018. These gadgets are fast becoming too useful to ignore.