Now, a mobile phone designed for senior citizens - Lifestyle -
DNA Mumbai, 7 January, 2011 Teaching elderly people how to use a cellphone can be frustrating. Businessman Jagdishbhai Patel experienced this first-hand when he was planning to buy a new mobile phone for his father, 62-year-old Nangibhai Vishrambhai Patel. Most handsets in the market either had too many features or had tiny buttons on a small keypad. "My father is growing old and his shaky fingers end up pressing two or more buttons at the same time," he says. Jagdishbhai's miseries, however, came to an end when he bought the Aasaan, part of a new range of cellphones that have large keypads and numbers printed on them in magnified, bold letters. "The phone is simple to use, has large fonts, enhanced sound clarity and even an SOS (Save Our Soul) button which rings loudly if he's in any emergency." And all this for just Rs3,250. The SOS button, in fact, is a major highlight of the phone. When activated, it not only beeps a siren which helps alert the people nearby but it also automatically sends a text message to five predefined emergency numbers in the phone-book. "Following that, the phone starts dialling those emergency numbers one by one until someone answers. If all calls go unanswered, the entire loop is repeated thrice. If that, too, doesn't work, an SMS is automatically sent to those numbers," says Sandeep Parasrampuria, director, iBall, the company which has launched this range of phones, designed specially for senior citizens. iBall has been in the computer accessories and digital lifestyle business and is now entering the mobile handsets business. "There is a huge category of consumers which is tech-phobic but still wants cellphone connectivity. Senior citizens form a large chunk of this and we identified this as a gap in the cellphone market in India," he says, adding that the company has also launched phones for different segments of people. Analysts say that a phone meant for senior citizens is a first in India and call it a good entry strategy, considering that the purchase often has the emotional aspect of gifting the product to parents. Naveen Mishra and Vishal Bhatnagar, senior analysts at IDC India, said, "Be it dual SIMs or handsets with multiple language software, Indian mobile phone companies are segmenting their target audience to launch their products. While over 50% of the population of 1.2 billion Indians comprises youngsters, there is still a huge market comprising elderly and tech-phobic people who want a simple phone for making calls." According to market estimates, about 108 million mobile phones were sold in India in 2009-2010 alone, generating about Rs27,000 crore in sales. A host of this was due to the entry of new Indian companies into the handsets business, namely Micromax, Maxx Mobile, Karbonn, Intex and Lava Mobiles. Globally, Austrian company Emporia focuses on manufacturing phones for the elderly and is in the process of building phones for the blind. These would read out incoming SMSes and the number and name of the caller for an incoming call besides reading out each number that is pressed when making an outgoing call. Source: http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/report_now-a-mobile-phone-designed-for-senior-citizens_1491277 Celebrating Louis Braille's birthday, Jan. 4th. To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
