Jimu news reporter Zhou Dan
"I want to change the smart phone for the elderly to my mother, I walked around the market and found that there is a machine for the elderly, and there is also a smart phone, that is, there is no smart phone brand specially designed for the elderly." Recently, Mr. Wang, a citizen of Wuhan, has visited many home appliance stores, but he can't find a suitable smartphone for the elderly.
He feels that the elderly have exclusive clothing, shoes and other brands, why is there no such smartphone brand?
Citizens complained that they could not buy an exclusive smart phone for the elderly
On February 20, Mr. Wang introduced that his mother is almost 80 years old, and he has been using an old man's machine with buttons before, "Before the Lantern Festival this year, her old man's machine suddenly broke, and I thought of changing her mobile phone." "Because my mother mentioned to him before that I went out to many places to ask for a health code, it was inconvenient to have no smartphone," but her vision was badly reduced, and her hearing was not as good as before, and I wanted to see if there was a smart phone brand specifically designed for the elderly. ”
A thousand-yuan model of a mobile phone store in Wuhan
Mr. Wang searched online for a circle, and then looked for a number of physical home appliance stores offline, but did not find, "Every time I said I wanted the elderly's smart phone, the shopping guide led me to a low-end mobile phone counter for a thousand yuan, but that was just an ordinary smart phone." ”
Mr. Wang said that ordinary smart phones, he also tried for his mother, "but she said it was too complicated, she couldn't understand it, and she wanted to find a smart phone with a minimalist operation mode." ”
Jimu News reporters searched online and found that many netizens had similar doubts.
Some netizens said that for the elderly market, there are many exclusive brands, such as shoes have "foot strength", etc., do not know why smart phones are not designed for the elderly brand.
On the 21st, Jimu News reporter searched for "old people's machine" on the e-commerce platform, mostly for buttons or clamshell machines priced at more than 100-200 yuan, the brands are philips, Gionee, Newman and other old brands, and the functions are relatively single: calling, texting, listening to the radio, etc., even if there is a camera, the pixel is very low. There are also some copycat machines that cannot be called brand names, and a mobile phone only sells for tens of yuan. And to download smart apps, it is even more impossible.
And search for "old people smart machine", the result is only more red rice and other brands with a price of a few hundred yuan of low-end models.
The market share of thousand yuan machines continues to decline
What about offline stores?
On the afternoon of the 21st, the reporter visited several home appliance stores and brand mobile phone stores in Wuhan and found that indeed as Mr. Wang said, as long as the reporter mentioned the "old man's machine", it would be taken to the counter of about a thousand yuan.
In a brand mobile phone store on Wuchang Heping Avenue, the shopping guide introduced that the elderly buy more smart phones at a price of 1,000-2,000 yuan. "For example, this smart series of mobile phones, many batteries are 5000mAh, large capacity, more durable, suitable for the elderly." The shopping guide told reporters that in addition to the strong battery life, the volume of the mobile phone is slightly larger than that of ordinary mobile phones, which is more in line with the needs of the elderly, in addition, it is almost the same as the ordinary smart phone function.
Why aren't there smartphones designed specifically for the elderly?
Jimu News reporter learned from a domestic mobile phone manufacturer that with the trend of consumption upgrading, at present, the market share of mobile phones with prices within 1,000 yuan has fallen below 10%, almost reaching the lowest level in the development of the industry in the past decade. This also makes many manufacturers think that there is no need to invest a lot of energy in cultivating the elderly market.
What the elderly need is a more intuitive and intelligent experience
Mr. Xu, the owner of the communication shop in Wuchang Guangbu tun for many years, told reporters that many children buy smart phones for the elderly, the budget is below 2,000 yuan, and the requirements are only durable, and these needs can be fully met by brand smart phones. In its observation, at present, oppo, vivo, millet, glory and other brands of many thousand yuan machine series are used by the elderly.
"The profit is not high, the market share is declining, so naturally no large brand manufacturers are willing to bother only to do the elderly machine." Mr. Xu said that in fact, there are many children who have used their old mobile phones for one or two years to the elderly, and they can also be satisfied.
"In fact, elderly mobile phone users should not be circled in a specific product category, they need more than large fonts, large icons, large volumes, relatively young people, they need to use the current voice interaction, wearable and other technologies to get a more intuitive intelligent experience." According to the analysis of senior people in the industry, the simple elderly machine, in addition to being cheap, has little help for the life of the elderly. Compared with giving the elderly a function machine with loud characters, they need to fill the intelligent gap and keep up with the pace of the times. This requires the joint efforts of more smart phone manufacturers, service providers, and industry chain merchants.