"Seniors today are used to having access to technology. As they get older they will want access to the same functions, the same technologies," Kapsys CEO Aram Hekimian said.
BARCELONA -- As smartphone giants Apple (IW 500/9) and Samsung (IW 1000/25) battle for the wallets of tech-savvy youngsters, a growing number of manufacturers is trying to lure a fast-growing new market: their grandparents.
Handset makers at the world's biggest mobile fair in Barcelona, Spain, showed off a slew of new devices aimed at the hundreds of millions of older people put off by the complexity of the latest iPhones and Android-powered smartphones.
One of the leaders of the segment in Europe, Austrian firm Emporia, launched a new handset, the Emporia Connect, at the February 24-28 Mobile World Congress.
The sleek-looking black and silver flip phone is designed not to be "stigmatizing" yet easy enough for older buyers to use, said Emporia's general manager for France, Christophe Yerolymos.
It has a keypad with larger numbers and an emergency button that will send an SOS along with data pinpointing the location of the phone.
The phone features a system called Emporia Me, with an array of remote control features for the owner's family, allowing a child or grandchild to check the device's location, battery status, or ensure the volume is up.
While it is not a smartphone and has no mapping service, it does have an orientation feature that lets a user push a single button to get turn-by-turn audible instructions for returning to a car while on a shopping trip, for example.
"Emporia is a company in growth, strong growth, even in the heart of the economic crisis we're in at the moment in Europe," said Yerolymos.
