Friday, May 22, 2009

"Easy to Use" Mobiles a New Niche

"Easy to use" mobile phones are a demographic "evergreen" market segment, Swedish consumer electronics company Doro believes.

In some cases it’s not a matter of whether customers are actually able to use a device, but rather they resonate with the image that the product conveys.

But there are some important design considerations. Larger characters on the phone screen and bigger buttons for dialing numbers are examples. Those with hearing loss can be provided devices that sync hearing aids using Bluetooth and have high quality speakers.

Though nobody can predict what will happen when today's BlackBerry and iPhone users age, they might not someday be able to view screens as well as they do today and might need better audio.

Maybe the buttons on a BlackBerry will be too small. And later in life, users might not be so busy. In that case, always-available email might not be so important, especially when users are paying for their own service and devices, rather than using company-supplied technology.

For today's seniors who have not used iPhones before, it is very likely that many such persons would reject the iPhone simply because of the device’s youth-centric branding.

Doro says it has been working with carrier partners both in Europe and undisclosed partners in the U.S. to investigate wireless health applications and other services that could leverage Doro’s easy to use phones.

As the wireless market becomes saturated, serving such niches will be more important.

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