Monthly Archives: October 2012

Senior Adopters

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I am happy to report that recent surveys indicate that folks 50-plus are really starting to use digital products. That is great news for people like me who use technology all the time and want the company of my contemporaries. There is probably much more to learn from you than the 20-year-olds who stare at me in horror when I ask questions. As more and more of my friends start using smartphones and tablets, I hope we will have much more to talk about other than new restaurant openings, the sales at Bloomingdale’s, and the last time they took a poop.

I am not kidding! There is a whole world out there that I want to share with others my age. It is now easily accessible through this new thing called apps (applications). Yes, we can get a lot of information over the Internet from our home computers, but the world is once again changing. Seniors have to be a part of it. Most of the information we are going to want to quickly access in the future will be through apps on your mobile devices. That means you will be using your smartphones and tablets much more. You may not understand this now but wait and see. A year from now you will be making doctor appointments, reading a novel, ordering food, and buying products through dedicated apps.

Be ready, be prepared. Learn how to use and navigate apps. Call me or email me if you are having technical difficulties. I can help you and if I don’t know how, I can get others. Don’t be left behind.

According to Pew Research Center, seniors are on their way. Pew Research just revealed that half of all adult Americans now own either a tablet computer or a smartphone, and one-third use their mobile devices to view news stories and video clips at least once a week. Pew polled more than 9,500 adults from late June to early August to get this information.

About 20 percent of the mobile news users surveyed said they paid for an online subscription in the last year. That doesn’t mean they are cutting back on viewing news on PCs or in newspapers. About half of the tablet news users say their tablets spur them to spend more time consuming news, and about one-third say they get news from new sources they didn’t use before. Nearly one-third of the mobile users also have print-only subscriptions, and most have no plans to give them up.

Another interesting fact is that devices based on Google Inc.’s Android platform are gaining momentum. Over half of tablet owners reported owning Apple’s iPad, compared with 81 percent a year ago. Forty-eight percent now own an Android-based device, including Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle Fire.

To be honest, I thought it was going to take a lot longer for seniors to adopt to all of the available technology. I was starting to lose faith until I read the Pew report. I look forward to the day when I get a call from one of my friends who tells me about a new app that I knew nothing about, but could use. That is the type of bonding I want.
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Looking For The Next Steve Jobs

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Will.i.am

Simon Cowell

Steve Jobs

It was only a matter of time. I am surprised it took this long. I even thought of it myself, but I don’t have millions of dollars to make it happen. It takes the likes of Simon Cowell and Will.i.am to back this sort of a thing. Looking for The Next Steve Jobs is like Looking for Mr. Goodbar. Does he really exist?

The duo of Simon and Will.i.am are working on a project called the ”X Factor for Tech.” The details are very sketchy at this point but basically it will be the same kind of format that has proven to be successful for singers and dancers: teams of producers screen the entries, the on-screen TV judges select the ones they want to present on stage, the audience then decides on the finalists and then the grand prize winner.

The big question for ”X Factor for Tech” is their particular format. Will there be a final winner for each show that gets a sum of money for a startup, or will it take a year to get to the grand finale? How serious are they in finding the next Steve Jobs? Personally, I think that is just a euphemism for finding inventors who are game changers like Jack Dorsey of Twitter and Four Square, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Steve Case of AOL, and Jeff Bezos of Amazon.

Unlike the entertainment business, there is just a limited number of geniuses. Most of the time when you hear a new and interesting concept, it first sounds like a winner. Then as time goes by, the concept starts developing warts that the money people don’t want to address and the inventor doesn’t know how to cure on his or her own.

If you ever watch Shark Tank, a TV show format with a similar objective as what I think “X Factor for Tech” will be about, you start to understand why the Sharks only give money to those who can stand on their own. They can’t be nursemaids to the idea people. Too many inventors/creators need money but they also need guidance. They know nothing about marketing, accounting, legal requirements, hiring, firing, meeting deadlines, or even sales. The minute the Sharks find out that the person standing before them is an empty suit, he or she gets turned down.

The same thing will happen on “X Factor for Tech.” Simon and Will.i.am are not about to give money for an idea that will go no place fast, so it is going to be interesting to see how they cultivate the inventor. The same thing holds true with American Idol, The X Factor and all of the other entertainment shows. Half of the grand winners cut a record or two but you never hear from them again.

That is show business. This is the tech business. The ultimate Steve Jobs didn’t just appear one day. He was created after decades of trying to make things happen and then deciding that he had enough substance to lead. Very few on earth ever feel like that other than the impostors. There are tons of them. It is going to be interesting to see if these two music moguls will be able to spot that.