FutureWire - futurism and emerging technology

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Cell Phones for Seniors

Niche operators have attracted much attention in the cell phone space, but most of these have focused on families, children, teens, and adults with special interests. Now comes GreatCall, a cell phone service designed especially for senior citizens who may have been intimidated by such devices in the past.

GreatCall offers two phone designs, the Jitterbug Dial (featuring large buttons and a simple, no-nonsense interface) and the OneTouch (with single-button dialing for emergency use, much like the children's Firefly phone). Both presume that the user is interested only in making calls, and not in texting, web access, cameras or other features.


The service, which debuted at the CTIA 2006 show in Las Vegas recently, will announce pricing plans when it goes live this summer.

Source: CNET