Consumer tech firms avoid marketing to older adults

But how can that be, when their products are potentially so useful?  I can hear it now – but older adults love their technology (notwithstanding the 30 million aged 65+ non-owners of smartphones).  Why all these gadgets and gizmos, these tools are so wonderfully helpful! Yes they are – apparently by accident, as determined by the user. It never seems to make it past the marketing department that this utility was intentional. And sometimes, as with Facebook, this accidental appreciation by older adults may be viewed as a liability. The Internet tells all:

• Search for Amazon Echo and dementia. Seems like everybody (and his/her mother) sees the potential for helping people with early onset dementia.  Alexa, what time is it?  Alexa, what day is it? Alexa, set timer for medication every day at 8:00 a.m.  Alexa read a book out loud.  Or people with Parkinson’s or blind or wheelchair bound. Plenty of uses, but Amazon, the world’s largest (fill-in-the-blank) mall, isn’t going to point you to them. Find answers in the discussion forum -- including one about an 87-year-old individual, no dementia. Answers come from customers of the device – not to be confused with Amazon’s own Customer Service.  Consider Audible books: “Listen to audiobooks on your commute, in the gym, while doing chores. Suddenly you have a whole lot more time to enjoy your favorite books.” Go ahead, business pro, go ahead.

• Search for iPad and elderly.  Other than the IBM-Japan Post announcement – which doesn’t even contain the phrase ‘About Apple’ in the press release – though, ironically, it came from Apple, what's Apple doing for seniors? The world’s largest tech company has left the driving of iPad usage by and for the elderly to – you guessed it – everybody but itself, though it has been said that they apparently ‘quietly targeting seniors for years with accessibility features.’ The features are great – their relevance for the elderly is so muted, let the website viewer figure it out -- the images of smiling children are not exactly giving away Apple’s interest level.  There is no US equivalent of Japan Post and IBM. And the key player in the last mile/kilometer in Japan? That was Japan Post.  One might think that older adults would be a good market -- considering declining iPhone sales.

• Search for Facebook and elderly.  Did you know, per Pew, that 56% of adults aged 65+ are on Facebook?  Or that this might be a direct contributor to Facebook’s slowing growth?  Luckily it found its inner mobile, and all is financially well, despite the presence of seniors – who also really wanted a ‘Dislike’ button, but what they got is, well, something else.  And further, the pesky users are just not posting personal stuff as much as Facebook’s advertising sales team would like. So Facebook wants to please its aging audience, but forget about them, to get those elusive young people, it spent $1 billion on Instagram and spent $22 billion to buy WhatsApp.

• Search for Google and elderly.  And do it on Bing, so as not to confuse yourself.  Okay, do it on Google. That’s actually more revealing.  Or look at the images on its own Accessibility pages. That is not-quite-informative page about Gmail.  And as for the number of older users of Gmail?  Did you know that the average age of a Gmail user was 31?  Well, that was in 2014. Now it must have risen to 33. What is the median age of a Google employee, anyway?  Can it be 28? Wow -- some of those 29-year-olds from 2013 may have quit – too old to stay, now they’ve gone to eBay or even Amazon.