With low take-up rates, the over-60s are a neglected market for the mobile phone. As youth skips from fad to fad, some firms are courting the steady loyalty of age, writes IAN CAMPBELL

THERE IS a lot of talk about the transformational effect of technology on our lives but its impact is often determined by age. People 65 and older still make up less than 10 per cent of the active internet audience and half of them do not possess a mobile phone.

A lazy conclusion is to dismiss the elderly as “technophobes” and blame them, but it can also be viewed as a failure by technologists to reach a massive market that is only going to get bigger as life expectancy increases.

For a younger generation that has grown up with their faces buried in screens of every size, it is hard to imagine that another generation is struggling with a man-machine interface that they find intuitive.

But older people who have trouble conceptualising drop-down menus, or have physical difficulties that make small buttons impossible, or for those who are hard of hearing or visually impaired, gadgets are a no-go zone. They may understand the benefits of technology but are put off by the complexity and find themselves excluded from the digital world.

Gus Desbarats is a designer and former engineer who has explored these issues for 25 years. He runs a UK-based company called The Alloy that specialises in optimising the design and function of products without compromising their mass market appeal.

He calls it “inclusive technology” and it involves making technology accessible to more senior citizens. “There has to be recognition that the majority of the population is older and that there are usability issues. Most manufacturers don’t consider themselves deficient in what they design, but they are,” said Desbarats.

“When the experience is good enough to make people take it up, that’s the inclusive element. That’s the detail that’s usually missing.”

Products that The Alloy has designed are svelte and stylish, uncluttered by buttons but a doddle to use. So why do mass market manufacturers miss the mark when it comes to older users?

“The people creating the products tend to be engineers from a certain age segment. And for the companies, it’s easier to allocate money and have clearer goals around chipsets and memory than inclusive design.”

According to Desbarats, it’s about the culture of the manufacturer and the pursuit of technology-led innovation rather than experience-led innovation. Apple is the big exception. “They know it’s about having a step-by-step view of the interface. It’s a hard culture to acquire. At Apple it helps that the bossman [Steve Jobs] doesn’t consider himself a technologist.”

Emporia is a much less well-known firm, a manufacturer specialising in inclusive design, making mobile handsets for older users, though Christophe Yerolymos, director of its UK office, is quick to point out that “older” can be an unhelpful label. “People are very different when they are 60 years old to when they are 80, and they will have very different needs. The challenge is to address all of their requirements without stigmatising them,” he said.

Large buttons, big text characters, loud volume, a user-friendly interface with an emergency button and a high-contrast screen are the key features, along with a robust build quality.

“They are designed to address hearing, seeing, security and simplicity,” said Yerolymos, acknowledging that people who want a “sexy phone” are not going to be impressed.

Emporia is an Austrian firm that sells its products through operators in 30 countries. Yerolymos claims it is the only company that builds its senior citizen phones from the ground up, using its own 40-strong RD team and focus group research to fine-tune the ergonomics.

A few years ago, the Vodafone Simply was one of the rare attempts made by a mobile operator to directly address the older market. The Sagem handset is no longer available but Yerolymos believes that saturation among younger users combined with the growing number of older customers will persuade operators to revisit the senior citizen market.

He says some are already working on tariff plans for the elderly.

But why has it taken so long? “For 15 years, operators have been concentrating on the younger demographic, totally forgetting that 30-40 per cent of their customer base is aged 50-plus. The perception is that they don’t generate significant ARPU [Average Revenue Per User],” he said.

Voice revenues have fallen as call costs have come down, prompting operators to push data services that have less appeal to older users. But Yerolymos thinks they are forgetting another side of the revenue argument.

“Older people might not want e-mail or to upload pictures to Facebook, but when they get a service they trust, they stick with it. There is a lot of churn among younger users and it costs operators a fortune to try and retain them. Companies don’t have that problem with elderly customers.”

The suggestion that Apple could eat up Emporia’s market opportunity – the iPhone and iPad have big onscreen keys and a friendly touchscreen interface – is refuted by Yerolymos.

“They might be of interest to some seniors but the software is still extremely complex. The biggest challenge to what we do is the cheap phones coming out of China. They have large keys and are sold as being suitable for the elderly, but they have a terrible user experience.”

Within two years, Emporia will add a camera to its phone specifications, as long as they can make it conform to its strict ease-of-use principles. But the ability to browse the web is not on the immediate roadmap.

Keeping it simple is the name of the game.

Review: Emporia Lifeplus

€129 on prepay from O2 EMPORIA WAS started after the company founder grew tired of trying to teach his ageing mother how to use a mobile phone. An engineer, he eventually realised it was the design that was the problem, not his parent. That Eureka moment has given us all something to buy our older relatives for Christmas.

For the first time in many years, I can send and receive texts without my glasses on. I can take and end calls without a second glance at the phone because two large buttons carry the familiar green and red phone icons. And when you slide it open to access the keys to make a call, there is a reassuringly solid feel to the gliding action that I haven’t had from a handset since the 1990s.

If you looked at the LIFEplus with the seasoned eye of a consumer looking for a hot new mobile device, you would almost certainly laugh and dismiss it as woefully retro. That would be entirely missing the point. The industrial design and robust engineering do a unique job for neglected users.

Chunky black letters in an orange-lit screen are a little off-putting until it’s explained they are the best combination for people who suffer from cataracts. Character sizes are adjustable in a font designed by Emporia for its clarity. No menus, a very loud but easily adjusted speaker, and large keys are the other striking features, along with a red emergency call button that dials pre-selected numbers until it gets a response.

The address book is just a click away, and numbers from incoming calls and texts can be stored instantly.

Emporia has two mobiles, LIFEplus and Elegance. While they both share common features for improved usability, Elegance is the more aesthetic, targeted at 50 year olds still clinging to notions of style. – IAN CAMPBELL