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Maybe you should buy your mother one, too. My mother (age 66) already packs a Nintendo DS and a cellphone. She’s considering an iPhone. A number of catalysts inspired me to write this piece and led me to believe that this is a good idea.
A few years ago I wrote a piece about this Kenyan, Timothy Maloi, who lives out in the Masai Mara when he’s working at safari camps with tourists. I sent him an N91 (I think) a couple of years ago after I got home from my trip. He didn’t own a personal computer, home phone, camera, MP3 player, etc. so this cellphone became his “everything” electronic. He’d send me e-mails from his cellphone, photos of his new daughter, etc. He’d charge it every few days in the bar at the camp with electricity from a generator. We recently reconnected on Facebook. Go figure. So-called advanced feature/functionality handsets are selling well in developing countries. Many will connect to the Internet for the first time on a cellphone.
My grandmother doesn’t have a computer. My grandfather used WebTV what seems like ten or 15 years ago, but she got rid of it when he passed away a couple of years ago. In any case, it didn’t support photos and videos to my knowledge (at least his version), and it was much too complicated for my grandmother.
Second, I just got back from a business trip in Australia. I took lots of photos which I downloaded to my computer and uploaded to Ovi and Facebook. I also took videos of kangaroos and a wallaby grabbing me and not letting go. My brother and his wife just had their first child. My grandmother would love to see this stuff. The way we usually share photos with my grandmother is to post them on Ofoto, and then my mother orders prints and mails them to my grandmother. The photos get to her weeks after the fact, and they don’t include explanations. I’ve seen a few business ideas looking to work around this by generating e-mails from a phone or sending photos to a TV, but they are all complex.
Third, I met this woman (Mary) on my swim team this summer. She’s pushing 75 or so. At one point during the swim meet (at which Mary swam the mile), we’re trying to work out some logistics for dinner. The 56-year-old, 64-year-old and 45-year-old women who were also in our group own cellphones, but only turn them on to make phone calls. Only the 64 year old (Susan) knows her own number, and there’s a 57 year old with a Blackberry. So the 75 year old reaches into her pocket and pulls out an iPhone. Seriously, I couldn’t believe it. She uses it for e-mail, Web browsing and phone calls. I taught her how to do SMS (in about 60 seconds) so we could connect later as I didn’t have my Blackberry with me to do e-mail. Mary was the most tech-savvy amongst all of us there that day.
I just finished reading this book “Younger Next Year” by Chris Crowley and Dr. Harry Lodge, MD. It’s a great book about how you need to exercise, eat good food, and stay mentally/emotionally engaged or your body will start to decay. This iPhone is one of the many tools that Mary is using to keep her mind sharp as she ages. Using sophisticated technology like the iPhone is only one component, but it contributes. So far, she’s outlived everyone in her family by more than 20 years.
Lastly, I can’t count the number of four or five year olds to whom I’ve handed the iPhone that got it working in a matter of minutes. My friends’ five year old (Kurt) had found the Application Store and was downloading new games within about ten minutes. The tilt and touch screen were natural. So, it’s really easy to use. We spend a lot of time talking with clients about accessibility on devices for those who have physical impairments. There is an aging population out here – accessibility will become only more important over time. A lot of the growth in terms of absolute numbers for cellphone subscribers will come in older age groups.
A lot of the efforts I’ve seen around cellphones for aging people seem to be focused on simplifying the experience and making the font really big. There are one-click emergency buttons (good stuff) and easy-to-understand plans. Their use of data services on cellphones is lower than just about any other age group other than maybe nine year olds who are on a restricted plan and with a phone with four buttons. This may suit many aging adults, but it doesn’t have to be this way.
As I thought about it, I found that there are all of these parallels to my grandmother. She doesn’t own a camera, let alone a digital camera. She doesn’t really know much about the Internet or what it is. She doesn’t own a computer, DVD player, CD player, etc. She does have an original AT&T cellphone that she keeps in her glove box in the car for emergencies. When I talk to her, she’s interested to know where I’ve been and what I’m doing. She loves postcards and loves to see photos.
So, that’s how I came upon the idea of an iPhone. I’ll get her a Facebook account, for example, and become her friend. She can simply click on the icon on the home screen and pull up a map of where I am, what I’m doing, and photos I’ve posted. I can post photos in one of the many other sites available as application downloads so she can see entire albums without waiting for prints in the mail. (I should also add that she’s not into accumulating anything and hasn’t been for 20 years so digital makes sense.) Like many on cellphones, she doesn’t have to send SMS messages or write e-mails, but she can still read them and then make a phone call when she wants. She also has arthritis so a touch screen seems easier to use than small buttons.
Perhaps a little early for some of you to be thinking about the holidays. The time after Thanksgiving goes so quickly though, and we’re already seeing some announcements of new gadgets that will be out for the holiday season. It’s not too early to be looking. And who knows about inventory. An astonishingly higher percentage of teens get their parents to buy them exactly the cell phone they want. At least according to our surveys, the iPhone will be a popular item.
Questions or comments about this column? Contact Seth atSFowler@jupiterresearch.com or Julie atJAsk@jupiterresearch.com or contact RCR Wireless News atrcrwebhelp@crain.com.
