Mobile Phone for the Elderly
With all the new features in mobile phones and the trend to keep making them smaller, increasingly more features are demanding more buttons, which inevitably get smaller.
There are a few handsets available for the elderly, with less features (i.e. no camera), and larger buttons to make dialling easier. Some even include a panic button, and these are a great idea. There are more mobile phones than people in the UK, and I would have thought at least one network would be interested in this market.
Not so, according to an article on BBC News Online. The head of Communic8, which makes the emporia Life mobile phone, explains that they’re finding difficulties in getting stores or networks to stock it. An o2 spokesperson points at the o2 Jet as their own phone aimed at this market.
In Register and CNET reviews it sounds like the phone is aimed at business users, but it is simple and has a good battery life. The numbers on the keys seem a little small, but it is a simple phone.
A few phones similar to the emporia Life have been launched in recent years, and I’m surprised even big branches of Tesco, Currys or Woolworths don’t stock them.
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James,
Interesting piece. Can you give me some names of mobile phones for elderly … I’m looking for a good phone for my parents.
Thanks,
Bjorn
Comment by Bjorn — August 19, 2007 @ 5:48 pm
Hi Bjorn,
Mobile phones aren’t my specialist subject, but I’ve had a look around and have found a few models that might be worth looking at.
The one mentioned in my post is the Emporia Life, but it is £144 plus VAT.
http://www.emporialifephone.co.uk/
From the same company (I think) is this very simple model with five large buttons, but this might be too simple.
http://www.silverphone.co.uk/
A few seem to have had luck with this Motorola phone. It looks pretty easy to use, and is under £40 on Virgin pay as you go. There is no camera, and I know a few people who find Motorola mobiles easy to get on with.
http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/details.jsp?globalObjectId=142
According to Gizmodo (a technology blog) you can increase the font size on the screen, which I imagine might be useful.
http://uk.gizmodo.com/2006/02/15/motorola_w220_mass_market_phon.html
Nokia have a page on accessible phones here;
http://www.nokiaaccessibility.com/ageing.html
The phones listed look pretty good - I know a few people with simple Nokia phones with a monochrome display which are very, very easy to use. I’d have no problem recommending the Nokia 1100, but I can’t find anyone selling it. This model looks similar.
http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.200-9957.aspx
Tesco Mobile actually do some decent, cheapish mobile phones.
http://www.tesco.com/mobilenetwork/shop/?page=payg
I’d do a search and see how they stack up in reviews for all of these models. I’d also think about going to a Carphone Warehouse (if you’re in the UK) where you should be able to try out the phone. I think generally Nokia phones (like the ones I’ve linked to) are the easiest to use.
Good luck with your search. :-)
Comment by James Burrage — August 19, 2007 @ 8:16 pm
James,
Greetings,
Found you when googling for mobile phones for my folks this evening. You provided some good links here, especially for Nokia and Motorola.
The Emporia Life Phone, which I just read about in The Guardian, has the right idea — but they need a big partner to get the product out to the masses. Lots of people don’t want their phones to double as a computer (not just older people)
In any case, I found your ideas helpful, so thank you kindly.
Take care.
Best Regards,
Marsha
Comment by Marsha — August 23, 2007 @ 11:12 pm