October 8, 2004
Japan's mobile operators target elderly
Mobile phones have become a must-have item for every high-powered Japanese businessman, multi-tasking mum and self-respecting teenager. Even schoolchildren often carry a mobile phone to call home on their way back from late-night cram school, reports the FT.
"But now that mobile phone penetration in Japan has hit nearly 70 per cent, the Japanese industry is targeting what could be its last remaining frontier - “technologically-challenged” consumers, including the elderly, who have so far been wary of owning a mobile phone.
Tu-Ka, owned by Japan's second largest mobile operator KDDI, is launching a range of mobile phones catering to those less comfortable with advanced technology.
It is running an advertising campaign in a bid to reach out to older consumers.
In a two-page newspaper spread placed in several national dailies this week, a microcosm of Japan - 100 people from babies to a 91-year old - wear T-shirts with their age emblazoned across the front and a caption that reads: “Japan is a country of older men and older women.”
KDDI is also launching later this month a new 3G phone with a user-friendly interface and audio guidance on how to use it.
This follows NTT DoCoMo, the market leader, which launched a 3G phone in August offering user-friendly functionality. To make sure users know which button they need to press next in order to perform a specific function, the button in question helpfully lights up.
Smaller rival Vodafone incorporates a “simple mode” in many of its handsets, which enlarges the screen font.
These efforts highlight two trends, which are particularly conspicuous in Japan but common to many developed economies the rapid greying of society and the growing divide between those who are comfortable using high-tech products and those who are not comfortable using advanced IT products,” said a KDDI representative. "
See related articles on phones for the elderly:
-- Mobi-ClickSwiss mobile operator Orange launched a cell phone for the elderly, with just three colored buttons, called Mobi-Click. It will be sold in Orange stores across the country as well as at The Post Office,
-- Phones For Young and Old in South Korea - Korean Carriers have started to sell phones designed for the most overlooked demographics: the very young and the very old.
-- «The Elderphone» - Click Senior-Tel is a full-blown GSM phone for the elderly and confused - with just three buttons.
-- Start-up launches easy-to-use mobile phone - Mobi-Click is generating excitement with its new range of phones that work using just three button.
-- Seniors to be offered S`911-only' cell phones - Cell phones that dial only 911 will be given free to seniors in unincorporated Palm Beach County.
-- Finding the Right Handset For Older Cellphone Users - Currently, seniors make up about 15% of overall cellphone users".
-- Simplified Phones for the Elderly - Mobile telematics company Benefon launches a new cell phone called «Benefon Seraph», it's meant to be a "guardian angel" phone. Ultra simplified with only 3 buttons, it allows for direct dialing to predefined numbers.
-- Verilocation - A mobile phone tracker, Verilocation pinpoints a cell user's wherabouts. It is also expected to be of interest to domestic users; anyone who needs to locate someone such as an elderly relative travelling away from home, small children out on their own...
-- Donated phones can help seniors - Senior centers in Michigan are asking the community for phone donations to better arm elderly people during an emergency.
The Permanent Link to this page is: http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2004/10/005622.htm
