Just when you thought we baby boomers were fading off into the sunset….WE’RE BACK!
High Tech is going to revolutionize the senior years for those of us born in the 1940s to 1950s according to an article in Red Herring (you will have to register to get to this site if you haven’t done so previously).
“In the future, everything from cell phones to computers will be redesigned for users with limited manual dexterity, poorer eyesight, and hearing….Intel, MIT, and other research centers are working on sensor-rich environments that can monitor their inhabitants, helping people remember to complete tasks and watching for sudden behavioral or physical changes. “
My generation has built sizable wealth, and we are not afraid to spend it to make our lives more comfortable. Combine this with the trend to postpone or transition into retirement and you have a large group of aging people with tremendous disposable income.
Much of entrepreneurial opportunity comes from major changes in demographics, society and technology. In this case, we have a confluence of all three. A major demographic group is moving into a significantly different stage in life. We have created a society in which we expect to have our problems taken care of for us. And, the technological revolution is just waiting for more problems to chase with already developed solutions.
?Aging people may also become be a target market for home robots. In Japan, companies like NEC are hoping to create “nursebots” that can provide basic physical and medical assistance to elderly users?.(I)n their desire to stay healthy, elders will view almost all of their consumption choices through the lens of health. Health considerations won’t be confined to diet or medical regimens: they’ll influence choices in everything from clothing to housing. But because emerging technologies like sensors and smart dust will make it possible to build intelligence and monitoring capabilities into just about everything, it’ll be possible for nearly everything to have a health monitoring or maintenance function. Indeed, this is such an important trend, culture historian and author Theodore Roszak predicts that “by the middle of the 21st century, every highly developed industrial society in the world will be a health care economy.”
What does all this create? Another huge growth opportunity for entrepreneurs in high tech, software and life sciences. At one time there was a concern that the aging of my generation would drag on the economy. After all, the conventional wisdom was that our early parenthood years were our big spending years. As we aged, we spent less, and since we are such a big demographic bulge this was going to create a long term economic decline. Not true, it now appears.
Given the mammoth size of my generation and increasing longevity, this could be a huge entrepreneurial pot of gold for the next forty years. God willing and the creek don’t rise, that is.
Thanks to Bill Hobbs for passing this article along.
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