From GigaOm:
While dozens of startups pour time and money into developing mobile health devices for the young, hale and hearty, they might be better off going grayer. The opportunity to sell technology to senior citizens is huge now and will only get bigger as more of us age into that segment. Which vendors will be best positioned to capitalize on this opportunity – a handful of early movers that are already in the market, or vendors like Fitbit (see disclosure) or Jawbone that focus on younguns?HT: Abnormal Returns
“Developers making technologies for the 20- and 30-somethings are missing a huge opportunity to supply the 100-million-plus people aged 50 and over in this country,” Laurie Orlov, an analyst with Age In Place Technology, said in an interview. She estimates that this market is worth $2 billion now and will hit $20 billion by 2020. Semico Research puts the number higher, forecasting that the market for gear like remote health monitors, oximeters, glucose monitors, medication reminders, heart rate monitors, safety alert bracelets, etc. will hit $30 billion by 2017.
How big is big?
You want more evidence? Research released in October conducted by Oxford Economics for the AARP said that Americans over 50 spend $4.6 trillion annually, with the ripple effect of that spending hitting $7.1 trillion per year. These are very big numbers. If you have an elderly relative, sooner or later you’ll find out how important technology can be in keeping that person involved and connected with the outside world — perhaps even enabling her to “age in place” as opposed to moving into an assisted-care facility or senior home.
One early mover in this field is Lively, which provides a home monitoring service pairing sensors with a wireless hub. It discretely notes when Grandma leaves the bedroom, opens the fridge or her pill bottle, etc., and alerts family or health professionals if, say, she doesn’t leave the bedroom for 10 hours or fails to take her pill (or at least open the bottle). A keyfob sensor can track when and if the house or car keys are used. Competitors include BeClose and GrandCare....MORE
The above opportunity is probably created, at least in part, by something Irving Wladawsky-Berger was riffing on earlier this week:
Sexting Apps Versus Helping Cure Cancer
I recently read a very interesting article in the NY Times Magazine - Silicon Valley’s Youth Problem. “In start-up land, the young barely talk to the old (and vice versa). That makes for a lot of cool apps. But great technology? Not so much,” says its tagline. Its author, Yiren Lu, graduated from Harvard last year with a degree in math and is currently a masters student in computer science at Columbia.
I really enjoyed the article. Ms Lu is a very good writer, storyteller and ethnographer, i.e., a kind of cultural anthropologist. Her article chronicles what she calls the Smart Kids and their Sexting Apps culture of Silicon Valley, a youth bubble combined with “a frenzied bubble of app-making and an even vaguer dread that what we are making might not be that meaningful.”
“There is a sense among them of manifest destiny, of This is our time,” she writes. What do people in Silicon Valley plan to do once they hit 35 and are officially over the hill?, asks a member of Quora, a popular question-answer site. “Despite its breathtaking arrogance, the question resonates; it articulates concerns about tech being, if not ageist, then at least increasingly youth-fetishizing.”
This question brought to mind don’t trust anyone over the age of 30, a phrase that embodied the generation gap of another era, the sixties, when societal and cultural battles were fought in a number of areas, including civil rights, the Vietnam War, and the feminist movement. While the generation gap Ms Lu writes about deals with very different, less weighty issues, there are a few similarities.
One is the youth culture. She notes that the median age of HP employees is 39, compared to 26 at Facebook. “The valley has always been a hard-charging, ever-optimistic place, full of people who are passionate about ideas that require some suspension of disbelief. But in the last 10 years in particular, there has been an exacerbation of the qualities for which it’s been both feted and mocked: Valuations are absurdly high for companies with no revenue. The founders are younger; the pace is faster.”
In general, transformational change requires such a passionate, suspension of disbelief, something that is easier when you are young, have few family responsibilities and can thus devote much of your time to your cause or career. Also, change often involves taking risks in your career and personal life, which is also easier when, in addition to being young and independent, you have safety nets to fall back on if needed, like a degree from a good university and the financial support from well-off parents. Not surprisingly, most of the Silicon Valley young people portrayed in the article are well educated and relatively affluent, as were many of the young people involved in the sixties counterculture....MORE
