An iPod adapted for the elderly – for every pensioner
Apple, IBM and Japan Post Group will take care of the elderly
Kostya A, iPhones.ruOne day we will all grow old.
And then our fate will depend not only on us, but also on those who can or want to help us. In Japan, a lot of large companies are dealing with this issue – including Apple.
The essence of the problemEvery year, technology is more and more closely involved in our lives.
And no matter what the opponents of progress say, the fact is the fact: we live much longer and healthier than, say, in the Middle Ages. But any progress, including technical progress, would not have been possible without the intensive participation of us, the people. And the more we work, giving ourselves entirely to our career, the less time we have to rest.
In developed countries, people tend to spend any free minute most effectively and have a good rest. Family and children who require work and dedication, as a rule, are postponed for the second half of life, when a career will be built, and a person will live "for himself". As a result, we live longer, have fewer and fewer children – and therefore the average age of a person on Earth, especially from the "golden billion", is slowly but surely growing.
This is how the median age of a person is distributed across countries:
It is not surprising that the largest proportion of people "over sixty" live in the country that has given the world so much from the field of technology – in Japan. In 2009, more than 30% of Japanese were over 60 years old, and another 20% were those who were over 65 years old. If the trend continues, by 2055, almost 38% of Japanese will be over 65 years old - despite the fact that the figure for the entire world population will be significantly lower – 21 percent.
Today, Japan is the perfect place to prepare for old age.
Of course, the heads of large companies working with a multi-million audience understand that in the long term, the share of elderly people among their clients will grow significantly, and it is worth preparing for this in advance. So, the other day Apple CEO Tim Cook, IBM CEO Ginny Rometty and CEO of Japan Post Group (almost eighty-year-old Taizo Nishimuro) met together to discuss how to take care of the elderly.
If we all know so much about the two American giants, then we will say separately about the Japanese side: Japan Post Group is one of the largest state–owned Japanese companies providing postal, insurance and banking services. Japan Post Group plans to go public at the end of this year, and is now seeking to acquire the image of a company that is an integral part of the lives of modern citizens. To do this, it was decided to work seriously on services related to the health of customers, and the company aims to expand the range of services for the elderly.
Taizo Nishimuro: among all the peoples in the world, the most active aging of the population occurs among the Japanese. We need working solutions.
Tim Cook: We will significantly improve the lives of millions of people. Sooner or later, every country in the world will face this.
The iPad is one of the main tools for this. Indeed, it is easy to learn for the elderly, and the large screen is great for visually impaired. The company plans to widely use Apple tablets with pre-installed applications that help improve the quality of life. IBM will develop these applications and all the cloud services necessary for work.
Based on the iPad, Apple and IBM will jointly create a tool for the elderly to help them always stay connected and take care of their health, and Japan Post Group will provide delivery of tablets to customers. The special version of the iPad will include both native iOS applications and those written specifically for this project by IBM specialists. By the way, IBM applications will work by interacting with the IBM Watson supercomputer, which has recently mastered the Japanese language. Such modified iPads "out of the box" will allow users to contact relatives (and vice versa, relatives to contact an elderly family member), call for emergency help or get an extended help. The project will be launched in Japan this year.
Apple and IBM are planning to launch similar services in the United States, but so far experimentally and on a much smaller scale.
It is not necessary, however, to think that altruism alone is behind all this. The market for services for the elderly is expected to grow explosively in the coming years, and today Apple and IBM are among the pioneers on the way to this "gold mine". Nevertheless, these are necessary and useful initiatives for many users.
Personally, I would definitely buy a tablet for my older relatives. And you?
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru06.05.2015