Are "hearables" the next big thing in MedTech?

I just read this fascinating article about the growth of in-ear wearables. According to the article, focus in the medtech space is shifting away from watch-style wearables for tracking vital health parameters to in-ear "hearables" instead. The apparent benefit with hearables is that the signals in the ear are generally much clearer than those from the wrist so you can gather more consistent data. 

A recent report by Global Data reckons that the hearables market is set to be worth $146 billion by 2030!

From STAT's in-ear device which is, apparently, the world's smallest wearable and can predict if a person is about to faint minutes before it happens - which seems like a great idea to me as someone prone to fainting, to EarSwitch's in-ear sensor "EarMetrics" that measures all sorts of things like temperature, heart rate, pulse, blood oxygen levels and blood pressure, it is clear that this is an area to watch.

With my trade mark attorney hat on, it is great to see that EarSwitch have taken steps to register their various product names as trade marks in the UK. This is clearly an area of medtech that is likely to be consumer facing, so ensuring that you have a strong brand that is well-protected is going to be key.