The Wearables Boom[ers] - Unlocking The Aging Market Opportunity
According to the World Health Organization, the 60+ population worldwide will double from 11% to 22% between 2000 to the year 2050. The total quantity of people 60+ will increase from 605M to 2B over the same period.
In the United States, 77.3M boomers makeup our 60+ population today. This equates to about 24% of our country's population is over the age of 60 (see CNN). And our seniors are living longer. In 2010, the CDC found the average lifespan of a person is 78.7.
Now that we've established that the aging market is huge, let's now break down some sub-segments. According to Transgenerational.org, it is important to not lump all 60+ individuals into one bucket. There are nuances of looking at them in the following age brackets:
The Oldest Old (84+)
The fastest-growing segment of the total population.
Boomers as well will be retiring at rapid rates over the next 10-20 years to fall within these three segments. Nielsen Research contends it is critical to analyze key Boomer audience segments not only by age brackets, but also by with kids versus without kids at home to get a feel for their lifestyle.
Boomer Trends, Wearable Trends
As Boomers age, they will demand products and services that will help them maintain their active lifestyle, health and wellness, and independence. As relevant to wearable tech, we can anticipate the following trends to spark increased products and services to address the Boomers' needs.
More Active: Americans 55+ are the fastest-growing age group among gym members, up more than 266% since 1987 (IBISWorld).
A survey by Del Web showed that 50% of Boomers expect to work at least part-time once they retire. Even gyms targeting Boomers like Nifty after Fifty are popping up targeting low-impact cardio machines and 'oldies' music playing over the speakers.
INSIGHT: don't assume activity trackers should only be targeted to the under 60 years of age crowd. The image of a senior being weak and sedentary is not an accurate portrayal of the younger portion of the 60+ crowd.
Desire to Age at Home: 80% of Boomers (vs. 69%of the general population) own a home according to the National Association of Realtors. Additionally, they intend to stay in their home as they age. Per the AARP's 'Fixing to Stay' study, upon retirement, 9 out of 10 seniors already stay where they are.
INSIGHT: Boomers have a strong desire to live independently within their own homes. Products and services to help them update their home to make it fit their needs as they age will grow. For wearables, solutions that help monitor their activities of daily living (ADLs) and provide alerts to loved ones in emergency situations can help them achieve this independence goal.
Interested in Tech: Boomers have a 50% higher spending rate on cellular phones and pagers. 81% of younger Boomers (born between 1955 and 1964) go online; 76% of older boomers (Pew Research). 38% - 42% of Boomers use social networking, and one in five use social media sites as a source of health-care information. Boomers are 5 times as likely as the general population to own an iPad or other tablet.
INSIGHT: Grandma is no longer afraid of technology - she has gained confidence and sophistication over the past decade and has now gone digital, social, mobile and tablet.
GE / Intel - Care Innovations: Two mega companies joined forces to create a technology division to serve the aging population's needs. Product suite ranges from healthcare monitoring to at home alert systems. I will note that I heard from a previous employee of Care Innovations that there was a large lay off round suggesting perhaps GE and Intel were too early in serving this market.
Care Predict: Care Predict offers for $160 a bundle of a wrist wearable (leaves much to be desired from a product design prospective) coupled with 4 Beacons to be placed in designated zones of the user's home. The solution gathers "tempos" or a baseline readings for what the user does on an average day of the week or time of day. When there is an outlier, like "Mom has been in the kitchen for 12 hours after 9PM", an alert is sent to loved ones to check-in. I will note that while this solution can do the trick for at-home monitoring, it appears worthless once the user leaves the home. In turn, I don't see this product being a solution for more active seniors or those suffering from dementia.
Lively: Lively's solution involves sensors for designated areas of the home, yet in this case the user does not need to wear a wearable technology product. It appears that each sensor has two halves, for example placed on the door and inside of a refrigerator, to detect when the sensors are near or afar form each other (the user has opened the refrigerator door that day). Data generated is captured in a hub that aggregates info and presents it in dashboards available to the user and her family. One advantage of this system is they have a sensor that is placed on the user's key ring - an object they are bound to keep with them when they are out-and-about.
Remote Health Monitoring: BodyTel or Scandu are two examples of products or services that can read biometric feedback and provide a "check up" from home. When coupled with a wearable that gathers health metrics like heart rate (Mio for example), these at home health check up systems can help seniors monitor their health and make proactive decisions.
Alert Systems: Philips Lifeline Alert has been a market leader in emergency alert wearables since 1974. It also looks as through the product design hasn't improved much since 1974. There are opportunities to provide a more discreet technology that can be an emergency alert, versus having a product that looks like a soap on a rope around your neck. I am interested to see mini wearables that can be worn on top of the user's jewelry or watches emerge to provide a more subtle technology solution, versus trying to convince the user to wear one more thing.
As Boomers age, technology can represent an effective way to support their active lifestyles and desire for independent living. The challenge will be whether companies can design products that will appeal to their tastes, yet combat Boomers' natural desire to question authority. It will be interesting to see whether activity trackers will be the first category of wearables to appeal to this age group, or if health monitoring solutions will capture their sensibilities first.
