One of the opportunities with Android based smartphones is the ability for companies to offer modified phones aimed at certain industries and markets.
Ahead of next week’s Mobile World Congress, Fujitsu has announced a phone designed for seniors with larger icons and a less sensitive touchscreen.
The senior market is one that’s been ripe for savvy manufacturers as older people move onto smartphones and demand devices that meet their needs.
Over the years there had been attempts at mobile phones designed for seniors but most of them had been pretty lame and none had sold well.
The difference with smartphones is that most of the design changes are involved in the software and with open source platforms like Android and Ubuntu it makes it easier for companies to build easy to use devices.
Now it’s fairly easy to make these devices, we can expect to see more of them and as smartphones are becoming cheaper – a quick look at the Alibaba website shows wholesale prices for Android based phones as low as $10 (although you have to buy a container load of the things.)
There’s some opportunities for some smart entrepreneurs with these devices and we’ll see some interesting smartphones aimed at certain groups.