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Originally Posted by dmaul1114
Sure....but they're not as tech savvy was my point. My parents are retired and only in their late 50's to early 60's and while they're into music, movies, reading etc., they're not into mp3 players, online stuff etc.
Some in that age group--and even older--certainly are. But you can't make any argument that older generations are a huge chunk of any tech market.
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I agree with the logic behind dedicated devices sticking around for awhile. But your assuming that tech-savviness goes along with (and drops off because of) age is a wrong assumption. Assuming older people can't and don't want to mess with new tech is the equivalent of saying "white men can't jump."
(Your idea of the "tech market" and mine might be different things, of course. My idea includes consumer electronics like TVs, stereos, DVD players, answering machines, GPS devices, etc... all of which have a healthy penetration into the senior market already, even as all of them become more complicated every day. But as they do, interfaces and controls become more simplified, thanks to better design, making these devices easy to use even by novices.)
Older people traditionally do not tend to be "bleeding edge first responders," but they are still interested in technology. And people
at any age can learn to use whatever they
want to learn to use. My parents, both past seventy, regularly spend time on their PCs, where they transact business and use entertainment media, including reading my novels on Acrobat. They carry cellphones and use them regularly, in my father's case to the extent that I can almost never get him on his landline anymore! They used computers daily in business, and they aren't afraid of them. And they don't need to call up their kids or grandkids to ask about "how e-mail attachments work," or how to "write an Acrobat paper." They learned on their own, and they know what they're doing.
Oh, yeah: My dad can whip my a$$ in Wii bowling, tennis, and golf. Standing or sitting in his easy chair.
You're also assuming that tablets will be and will remain so uber-complicated that only a die-hard geek would want to use them, while dedicated readers will be drool-cup simple to use. Based on the development of technology, this isn't likely to be the case. Sure, there will be complicated apps and set-ups for many devices and computers. But we are also seeing devices like netbooks that are pretty-much all set out-of-the-box, requiring no effort to figure out, and no need to fiddle with. As time goes by, we are much more likely to see more devices like this than of more complicated computers.
We are also more likely to see the dedicated devices take on more features, to attract more consumers, and become less "dedicated." I know this sounds counter to their intent, but this is what we tend to see in consumer electronics development, and I see no reason to expect dedicated devices to be any different. Those features will mostly be book-related at first (better organizing, searching, referencing, clipping and saving, etc), but more will come later. Even a Kindle isn't fully a "dedicated" device, as it also plays MP3s... there you go.
Older penetration into dedicated devices hasn't happened yet... but then again, penetration into the overall consumer market hasn't happened yet either. This isn't an age issue, this is a marketing issue, and until the device sellers begin to market to that segment, you can't say that they can't or won't use a device that they're not really aware of yet (Oprah notwithstanding).