Google forced the creation of so-called mobile sites? Rant on. Last week I published a list of Medication Management technologies that could be useful to baby boomers. Great. This week I looked at those websites a bit more closely, not squinting at my phone, but instead from my desktop PC. I selected a few of them – stared at the full motion video on the desktop sites, and ran their URLs through the Google Mobile Friendly-ness test. I also put in MobiHealthNews and Weather.gov (Google says not mobile friendly). The URL for Anthem.com was deemed mobile friendly, but when searching via Google for Anthem.com, I was directed to an Overview page (not friendly). Then I look at the tortured feedback on Google’s own recommended forum about this topic: So many sites have been failing this test -- with their owners fixing and then pleading with Google to take another look.
Technology improvements do not always…improve. Rant on. You remember that experience in your life of turning a key and a long-ago new car just started? We expect that with technology but we virtually never get it. And we don’t complain. Much. Wireless networks in the home need a geek-or-two to get running. Smart phones require training, app downloads take time. Then slog through customization of menus, opting out of stupid defaults, and quite frightening disclosures. “Anonymous location data will occasionally be sent to Google, even when no apps are running. Agree?” Oh sure. Because it doesn’t matter whether I agree or not.
The more innovation there is, the more some things don’t change. Stroll through this Aging 2.0 Summit link – and you will see pages of logos of new, newer, and newest companies trying to make a technology or product that could be used to serve seniors – or perhaps help those who serve them. Or the AARP Health50 Live Pitch, or the Stanford Longevity Design Challenge or the Quintiles competition at Wake Forest in North Carolina. Yet again and again, the question bubbles up – can firms make money creating and selling technology or other innovations specifically designed for seniors?
Chattanooga-based company Clarity has a new president and is launching two new products.
Telecommunications industry veteran Jamie van den Bergh is the company's new leader, and he said he's passionate about using innovation to bring new solutions to the market. Clarity is a company that creates communications solutions to enhance the lives of senior citizens.
The two new products that will be launched next month aim to make it easier for people to stay connected as they age. One is a business product and one is for families.
The Electronic Caregiver Company, SameDay Security, Inc., has organized an innovative team of software development engineers, PhDs in Kinesiology, biomechanics engineers, medical professionals, and the resources of a $13M Senior Fall Research Laboratory at New Mexico State University. The latest Electronic Caregiver innovations are being designed for incorporation in smartphones like the iPhone 6, smart watches like Apple Watch, and wearable devices such as Google Glass.
April 14, 2015 – San Francisco, CA –Droplet is a smart, wireless button that you can attach to anything. Simply tap the button to reliably track activities such as household chores, fitness goals and taking medication. Once you’ve completed the task and pressed the Droplet button, your progress is recorded through a dedicated app, setting a habit-forming process in motion.
Tech companies want consumers who can be herded forward. There was the magic of the iPhone 6 and the 6-plus. By the time those came out, the old iPhones were tired, maybe too slow -- Apple fans were eager, if not desperate for a better device. Then not so long after Samsung introduced its Galaxy S4 in May 2013, it announced the S5 in February 2014. The Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy Edge (and their updates) showed up this week -- hustled out the door to keep pace with media mega-hype of the Apple Watch. How wonderful and different are the new Samsung gadgets from the S3 and S5? Wait for it – startup with a finger swipe, a curved edge and again imitating Apple… no removable batteries. Oh, so the new phones have a 12-hour battery life? Well, you can charge the phone within 15 minutes to get 4 hours of life out of it? Not so good when the day is long.
These are tech transition times for everyone – including seniors and their devices. In case you didn’t see it, the Pew numbers about smartphone use are out – 27% of the 65+ have smartphones, up from 19% last year. Given the date of that data (from last fall), let’s just assume that this number is actually lower than today's reality. So why should a PERS reseller or manufacturer care? First because carriers don’t want to sell feature/clamshell phones any more. They make it difficult to even find them. They are selling smartphones to people who don’t want or use all of the features they have, but they’re buying them anyway because that is what they’re being sold. In retrospect, Philips Lifeline might have seen the near term PERS future – and it could be a smartphone – and thus an app. And thus -- why have more than one device? And why not pair a tiny pendant or clip to a smartphone? Or make a watch?
Times change, so do phones. One year ago according to the latest from Pew, 18% of the 65+ had a smartphone – today, 27% have them. Why? Well, for one thing, when a phone breaks, smartphones are easy to find in the store as directed by a rep and online, while ‘basic’ phones (Verizon has 6 unique basic phones) are buried under pre-paid plans. AT&T's two unique brands are very difficult to find, with a handful of non-contract Go Phones – found online after wading through a gazillion smartphone choices. Also, 41% of people aged 65-69 are smartphone owners, perhaps side effects of working longer, greater longevity, families with pics, videos, and chats that must be seen NOW. But still, more than 70% of the 41 million 65+ still do not have smartphones. This likely isn’t because of the cost of the plans (43% of smartphone owners pay between $50 and $100) – only 10% of the 65+ are statistically classified as living in poverty.
