Gadget makers ignoring elderly people

Alexander Turcic · 02-22-2005, 05:18 AM

Are gadget makers such as PalmOne and Apple turning a blind eye on elderly people and in general on people with disabilities? You don't have to be old to find it a struggle to read the tiny type on your iPod, PDA or cell phone, but aging doesn't help matters.

Today I stumbled over the following article from Marketwatch analyzing the situation:

Quote:

As much of today's advertising makes clear, product makers are intent on getting young, tech-savvy trendsetters to buy their goods.

That may be a mistake, given that the 50-plus market controls as much as $750 billion to $2 trillion in discretionary income, according to market researcher Brent Green, author of "Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers."

"Companies are doing themselves a disservice if they don't go after" older Americans, said Danielle Levitas, a senior analyst with IDC, a technology-research firm in Framingham, Mass. "It's a demographic with disposable income and ... it's ripe for the opportunity.

PalmOne is taking notice:

Quote:

When surveying its customers, PalmOne found about one-third of those over age 50 are new adopters of handhelds and smart phones.

"They are for the first time purchasing these handhelds and smart phones, which makes a lot of sense as technology is becoming more and more a part of our lives," said Rose Rodd, director of product line marketing at PalmOne.

PalmOne (PLMO: news, chart, profile) is responding by making easy-to-read screens and products that are simple to use out of the box, she said.

PalmOne handhelds come with a "setup poster with just three steps, large type, large pictures, very simple language," she said.

Pride Of Lions · 02-22-2005, 12:33 PM

This quote from PalmOne really explains why they're in no hurry to produce a PDA for us power-users. For them it's simpler to make an easy to use PDA and market the heck out of it, than to make a power-user PDA and have to deal with all of the support calls from old people about how to turn on the Wi-Fi and such (even if their support division is out-sourced, all of those calls still add up).

Come on other-Palm-OS hardware vendors!! The rest of us need you.
POL9A

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02-22-2005, 12:33 PM	#2
Pride Of Lions just kinda geeky Posts: 381 Karma: 30 Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Oakland, California Device: iPhone	This quote from PalmOne really explains why they're in no hurry to produce a PDA for us power-users. For them it's simpler to make an easy to use PDA and market the heck out of it, than to make a power-user PDA and have to deal with all of the support calls from old people about how to turn on the Wi-Fi and such (even if their support division is out-sourced, all of those calls still add up). Come on other-Palm-OS hardware vendors!! The rest of us need you. POL9A

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