This has been a remarkable month -- my industry analyst firm, Aging in Place Technology Watch, was launched on March 19 at the Boomer What's Next Summit in Las Vegas with press releases from us, from our partner in aging advocacy, Gilbert Guide, a syndicated column by Mark Miller of RetirementRevised that's been picked up by the Huffington Post and the 2009 Market Overview was released and is extremely well received -- by those who have read all 29 pages!

Our work continues to be used in different formats and channels -- this site will link back to them as the new postings and formats appear. We're now signing up research relationship contracts and have scheduled our first vendor strategy session road trip for next week!

Blog highlights from this past month:

The Internet and computers everywhere -- except for older seniors -- looking at the flipside of upbeat technology adoption trends to observe that the majority of Americans older than age 70 are not online and how unfortunate that is. You and I know that not only does the 'Internet change everything', an old Forrester speech tagline, but it offers more useful information and opportunity for community for those over the age of 70 than any other channel, including television. It even, in many communities, links up people in the real community!

Baby boomers want information, to connect to others, and move or improve their homes. Looking at two studies, one from AARP and one from Focalyst, on intent and interest levels of baby boomers -- do they want to move from their current homes, and even in a down economy, what is it that they want and won't give up? You guessed it. Cable TV.

Five small indicators of trends in aging in place technology. Looking at entrepreneur ideas, geriatric care management, tech training for seniors, and the growing visibility of senior villages. When small changes are looked at in aggregate, they start to look like a really big trend.

And our vendor of the month -- SoftShell -- a Toronto-based startup that has produced a ease-of-use software tool for use at a low price point per user (< $10) and touch user interface that can enable assisted living facilities and nursing homes to add it to their list of services to residents by buying one all-in-1 machine thus opening up e-mail (including voice messages), games, and the Internet to a population that otherwise would never encounter them.

I am looking forward to lots of feedback (on the market overview, on blog posts, and from the stack of business cards I exchanged in Las Vegas last week!), upcoming trips to Boston and Santa Clara -- and more briefings with vendors about technologies I should know about but have yet to encounter!

That's it for March!

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All the best,

Laurie Orlov, Principal Analyst

Aging in Place Technology Watch