Kicking off 2010 -- eyes forward. This past year needs to be untied, unvelcroed, and then discarded like worn out tennis shoes. Despite pessimistic prognosticators -- so many, so tiresome -- I think the market for technology for boomers and seniors has more than a few positives on its side for 2010. 

First of all, there's those pesky and inexorable demographics and the fact that 2010 is the last year that 100% of baby boomers can declare themselves not to be seniors.   Okay, moving on. What we saw in 2009 was a year in which newer technologies began to migrate their way into applications that will be marketed directly and through channels in 2010 -- GPS tracking, for example into MobileHelp and accelerometer-based fall detection from Halo Monitoring and now just into 2010, Wellcore.

Next, let's talk about talent. The decline of large corporation job stability has created a society of entrepreneurs everywhere, including this market. Today, there are so many sharp, innovative, and emotionally invested individuals and teams forming to solve numerous vexing problems -- yes, there's fall risk, but there's also solving problems of social isolation, long distance caregiving, medication non-compliance, finding transportation, financing longer life expectancy, modifying senior housing and its inverse - virtual assisted living - and finally mobile health. Unlike my prior life of covering enterprise IT topics, today I rarely hear of a 'technology in search of a problem' -- rather, I hear about technologies within the context of solutions to problems.

Finally, let's think about investment and risk-taking.  In spite of, or perhaps because of, the overall economic situation, venture capital companies are certainly talking about investing in technologies for an aging society, but there are also self-funders of software-only solutions, those who sold previous companies and are using the funds to build the next service, and angel funders who see a need (perhaps in their own family circle) or an unmet societal issue in their community.

But we have a long way to go.  There's a ready and waiting audience for easy-to-use smart phones with adequate key sizes and a readable screens. Maybe you see older (and addicted) BlackBerry and iPhone users out there who have accommodated themselves to current products. Who knows, maybe they'll even like the new iPad that will give eReaders like Amazon's Kindle a run for their eBook money.  Does Apple or RIM acknowledge their aging boomer or senior markets? They do not in any way that is detectable.

So here are three blog posts from the past month for you to consider.

What to do with tech trends from 2009 as we head into 2010. Those marketing products in the aging and home health sectors should place their marketing into the framework of decision-points along the continuum of care, including release from a hospital, move to a new location, change in life or income status, onset of a physical condition.

Ten Market Wishes for 2010. These include more piloting projects among professional organizations who care for seniors, more participation in this market by large vendors, and less worrying about competition and new entrants, or that perennial dilemma -- reimbursement.

And new blogger (and longtime Forrester analyst) Liz Boehm's:

What does Avatar have to do with aging in place? Consider the metaphor in the context of 'seeing' your family members in their context as people (not just patients or end-points of a communication link.) Monitoring is useful -- monitoring with the ability to send and receive messages -- that much better.

Remember, you can sign up for blog post notifications on www.ageinplacetech.com by putting your e-mail address into a Subscribe 'Feedburner' box on the left. (Of course within the posts you receive, you can unsubscribe as well.)  Registering on the site also enables download of  2009 Market Overview and Health and Technology reports as well.

Happy January!

Laurie Orlov