Communications and comfort big (Nasdaq: RIMM) RIM, the maker of the ubiquitous Blackberry, sees a variety of defining trends ahead. These mirror the themes of my personal study and are cornerstones of the MIT AgeLab
Motley Fool’s Dan Dzombak January 26 article, “4 Essential Tendencies RIM’s Futurist Foresees,” reviews on a talk supplied by RIM’s Manager of Innovation & Know-how Futurist, Joseph Dvorak, PhD. Dr Dvorak identifies four tendencies influencing the potential of the wise cellphone:
(1) Getting old world: the median age on the world in 2000 was 26, by mid-century it will be 36 and the number of people today over 60 will triple — to approximately two billion persons
(2) Connectivity: clever phones, other products and wireless providers will blur action, place, and press trends we presently see in social media and conversation
(3) Empowered buyers: People will go on to undertake applications that help them keep an eye on and take care of their marriage with providers, e.g., social media that advises on everything from cafe choices, to fiscal services, to ‘hey, where’s my package deal?’
(4)’Values’ buying (e.g., environmentally friendly consumers). Values obtaining is not just for children. The place there is a increase in ‘color causes’ (my phrase) — purchasing eco-friendly, supporting pink, and encouraging purple — aging infant boomers are increasingly fascinated in their social affect and legacy. That is, ‘what am I contributing and what will I leave driving?’
Perception & Innovations
Alone these trends are fascinating and organization as nicely as federal government must be knowledgeable of their feasible effects on the potential. Having said that, the future of ageing and innovation is a blending of these tendencies – not the extension of any one particular.
What comes about when more mature customers are ubiquitously related, empowered and make acquire selections on values beyond charge and high-quality? For instance, what could wireless-enabled health and fitness or caregiving providers in the pocket of an growing older boomer glimpse like? Will ubiquitous computing electricity, social media, and price getting produce virtual collaborative networks of provider companies for sandwiched boomers nowadays and frail boomers tomorrow? Can you imagine the emergence of a 24/7 on-need, constantly ‘visible’ on your good telephone, inexperienced, transportation services for a social community of ‘friends?’
The company chance is not to be only conscious of these traits, but to mix them, envision competing realities and to see these option futures as motorists of item and support innovation.