By the end of 2017, the mHealth industry is expected to have grown by a compound annual growth rate of 61 percent, to reach a value of $26 billion, according to a new report from Research and Markets.

The market for mHealth applications is developing along three different phases. Currently, mHealth players have entered the commercialization phase of the market. This phase can be characterized by a massive increase of offered solutions, the creation of new business models, and the concentration on private, health-interested people, patients, and corporations as major target groups.

The general sophistication of today's mHealth applications is low to medium, and many of the mHealth-categorized applications provide a limited benefit for patients, doctors, and health interested smartphone users. Nevertheless, advanced solutions do exist.

Five years from now, the mHealth market will be a mass market with a reach of billions of smartphone and tablet users. By that time, 50 percent of these users will have downloaded mHealth applications.

This growth projection is based on the assumption that private buyers will continue to be the primary spenders in the next five years, but that the integration of mHealth applications into traditional health care systems will become more and more common (integrated phase) during that time.

This report produced similar conclusions to one in March from industry analyst firm Research2Guidance, which also found that the market for mHealth services would reach $26 billion globally by 2017.