A new survey by In-Stat contains some perhaps-surprising findings. “Users 55 and older are largely not at all interested in phones with a gaming-oriented form factor,” says Greg Potter, research analyst. But the results, a snapshot in time, might be misleading. Many observers might note that, over time, as has been the case for many new technology innovations, though "heavy" use might more often characterize younger users, behaviors typically spread quite broadly through all age demographics.
Out of 16,810 smartphone owners surveyed for SixthSense on behalf of marketing consultancy Lady Geek, around 10 percent (1,639) were older than 55, and around a third (510) of these were women older than 55, for example. Gaming was second most-popular within the age demographic, with one in five stating a game was their favourite app, showing that casual gaming is as popular with the older gaming market as it is across the board.
Belinda Parmar, founder of Lady Geek, says of that study that "a revolution is going on within this older group, but no one seems to notice or pay any attention to these women."
According to the report, 39% of female smartphone owners over 55 have downloaded one or more apps, highlighting a gap in the market for apps aimed at an older audience.
Broken down, 15.2 percent of women aged over 55 had downloaded one app to their smartphone, 9.4 percent between three and five apps, and 14.3 percent have downloaded more.
The most downloaded app for women over 55 is Facebook, highlighting an emphasis on social interaction.
The In-Stat report also contains some other findings that seemingly do not resonate. “Those who are 55 and older prefer, by a significant margin, the use of a numbered keypad over a QWERTY keyboard, which was unexpected," says Potter.
But consider the users of the BlackBerry, which by definition incorporate physical or virtual QWERTY keyboards. About 80 percent of BlackBerry users report using email on their smartphones, 70 percent send email, and it is hard to believe that those users do not use the keyboard. In fact, 47 percent of feature phone owners also report sending emails from their mobiles.
The study also suggests users 55 and over are not interested in expanding how they use their cellphones, are less likely to have memory card slots, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and email on their phones, suggesting they use less advanced cellphones. The issue is not whether there are demographic differences. It would be hard to find any metric of technology usage that does not have a significant demographic difference in usage or demand, based on age.
The larger point is that such differences decline over time. The study also suggests cellphone users 55 and over are less likely to be using Wi-Fi hotspots for increased reception. Again, the point is not that there are differences by demographic cohort. The point is that the differences will narrow over time, and relatively quickly, if smartphones are like any other technologies people have been exposed to, and which have value.
That isn't to say there are no differences, or that the differences can be significant for relatively brief amounts of time.
http://www.creatingresults.com/knowledge/tag/millennials/.
According to Pew, 70 percent of Boomers now access the Internet everyday for work or personal reasons, up from 25 percent ten years ago.
Social media use among Boomers has grown by 88 percent in a year. According to Deloitte, almost two thirds of Boomers now send text messages and 37 percent access the internet on their phones.
At this rate, in less than five years, the differences between Boomers, especially younger Boomers (born between 1955 and 1964), and younger generations will be negligible.
In-Stat argues that designers should build and sell simple devices for those 55 and above. That might be the wrong move, if the direction is convergence of use modes across demographics.
