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The digital divide of the elderly A huge market lying idle
For most of us the Internet has become a commodity. Many of us can hardly remember the time when we had to get travel information in a real tourist office, or search for information in one of the 30 printed volumes of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Even birthday and Christmas greetings are increasingly exchanged via e-mail rather than as physical letters. One group of people, however, is left out of this exciting information society world: the large group of elderly people. Whilst according to EUROSTAT 75% of the 15 to 24 year old Europeans use the Internet regularly, the figure decreases to merely 21% for Europeans between 55 and 74 years of age. If you consider the life situation of elderly people you would think that the opposite should be the case. After finally being retired, there is more time for leisure, travel, private studies, and keeping in contact with family and friends. All activities for which the Internet is an ideal tool. Why do most seniors not use the Internet? The main reason, why Internet adoption amongst elderly people is so low, is in my mind very clear: For using the Internet you need to operate a PC, and this is simply too complicated for most elderly people; or at least they think it is. Most of them are not willing to jump over the threshold to learn basic PC skills necessary for accessing the world of Internet applications. According to Seniorwatch, a European Union programme for monitoring the needs and markets for older citizens, 48% of the European citizens older than 50 years agree or strongly agree with the statement “I am too old to familiarise myself with computers”. The number increases to 62% amongst the non-PC-users. Even worse, European seniors feel left alone by politics and industry. Seniorwatch collected information from many elderly people with an abashing result: Only 38% of the European citizens older than 50 years and not using a PC feel sufficiently informed about computers. 48% blame manufacturers not to incorporate their needs in product characteristics. Is there a market? First of all the problem is preliminary, and will improve steadily. The generation, for which the use of a PC is as normal as was the use of a typewriter thirty years ago, is growing older and will soon become the older generation. Since the skills to operate a PC are not lost when someone grows older, we can assume that in 10 to 20 years time the Internet usage gap between elderly and younger people will have significantly decreased if not vanished. Until then, there is a huge unexplored potential market. If we simply assume that we can raise the Internet penetration amongst people older than 55 years from currently 21% to the existing European all-age-group-covering average of 47%, we are talking about a potential market of roughly 35 million people in the enlarged European Union of 25 countries. There are huge regional differences; in Scandinavian countries the usage of Internet amongst the 55+ citizens is higher than 50%, whilst it is less than 10% in southern European countries like Portugal. Nevertheless, the market potential should be large enough for industry to wake up and provide appropriate devices and services. What can be done? If we finally accept that:
we can only solve the issue, if our ICT industry provides a cheap and simple “Internet access device” and a “one-stop, all-inclusive Internet connection service” with a clear and simple tariff structure. Of course, complete installation needs to be included for a moderate lump sum. I can just not imagine that it is technologically too difficult to develop a simple device for less than 200 euro, which has a button for connecting directly to a simple Internet search portal, a button for sending and reading e-mails in an uncomplicated way, a 9 inch screen as display, a mouse-like device for navigating, a keyboard for typing e-mail texts, and a failsafe function, which automatically returns it into a stable operation mode, should it crash. I can also not imagine that with all these new ICT service-providing companies on the market, there is none willing to install a one-stop, all-comprising Internet connection at a reasonable all-inclusive tariff. Particularly if we take into account that the potential market could be 35 million people or more just in the European Union. First steps into this direction are already happening. For example AMD has recently launched its “Personal Internet Communicator” (PIC), a compact device for affordable and simple Internet access, and some Internet service providers have started to offer all-inclusive installations for a flat fee. More information on European statistics and on the needs of elderly people can be found at: http://epp.eurostat.cec.eu.int/portal/page?_pageid=1090,30070682,1090_30298591&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL More information on the “Personal Internet Communicator” is available at: http://www.amdboard.com/pic.html Please send us your comments on this article. |
