Computer companies get the
drift: Grandma wants to surf
By JOHN HUGHES
The Associated Press
05/17/99 2:23 AM Eastern
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Computer companies are catching on --
grandma and grandpa want to surf the Web.
With the number of older Americans on the Internet growing, but
only one out of four people over age 60 owning computers, hi-tech
companies are viewing the elderly as one of the last largely untapped
U.S. market.
Companies such as Microsoft, Intel and America Online are
distributing instructional videos on computer use, sponsoring training
seminars and creating Web sites that cater to the elderly.
"We're finding a lot of interest," said Craig Spiezle, director of
Microsoft's senior initiative. "Clearly, the growth is huge."
People over age 50 are the second-fastest-growing group on the
Internet, trailing only 16-to-24-year-olds, according to a study last year
by Nielsen Media Research and CommerceNet.
But the over-50 group accounts for only 17 percent of the people who
use the Internet, the study found. And only 25 percent of people over
age 60 own a computer, compared with 50 percent for the rest of the
population, according to research by Microsoft and the American
Society on Aging.
So company officials are taking action.
Intel, the world's largest chip maker, has donated equipment for
computer training centers and sponsored Web sites that cater to the
elderly.
America Online, the nation's largest Internet provider, has boosted its
content directed at seniors, forming partnerships with groups such as
the American Association of Retired Persons.
IBM offers computer discounts to members of the non-profit
computer training group SeniorNet. On-line auctioneer e-Bay has run
print ads aimed at older customers, and computer maker Gateway has
sponsored training seminars and run TV ads.
"We see it as a very important market," said Greg Lund of Gateway.
"These are people who are not only not scared of technology, they're
willing to experiment with it."
Microsoft is conducting one of the more high-profile efforts, spending
millions of dollars and hiring a five-person staff dedicated to reaching
out to older customers. The Redmond, Wash., software giant
announced this month that it is shipping 10,000 free videos to
community groups to introduce seniors to computers.
Last week, Microsoft issued guidelines for businesses and Web site
developers on how to make Internet sites more user-friendly and
accessible for seniors.
Cynthia Creighton, a 57-year-old former civil servant who is taking a
computer training class in Portland, Ore., said she uses her computer
to send poems to her daughters.
"It's been a marvelous way to keep in touch," she said.
But company officials see something else in older users -- profits.
Industry officials say many of the elderly have the key essentials to
becoming computer owners -- time and money.
The most recently available census data, from 1993, showed that
70-to-74-year-olds, followed by 65-to-69-year-olds, were the wealthiest
age groups in America based on net worth.
Hi-tech companies are "definitely catching on," said Mark Carpenter,
online communications director for the AARP. "Lots of times when
you are 22 years old you can't afford to buy a PC."
Frances Jette, 59, of Hudson, N.H., was only one week into her first
computer training class earlier this year when she plunked down
$1,500 to buy her first computer. Now she has set up a Web page to
sell the clocks she makes, and she checks it each day for orders.
"It was much well worth it," she said.
Industry experts say the increasing focus on the elderly has been a
natural progression. With their children and grandchildren often
already plugged in, seniors see computers as valuable for checking
stock prices, getting health and travel tips and, above all, exchanging
e-mail and digital photographs.
"They want to keep in touch with their family and friends," said Laura
Fay of SeniorNet in San Francisco.
And with retirees living longer, and often viewing Social Security as
insufficient to support them, they also want training for a new job.
Ed Kelley, who signed up with Green Thumb Inc., a nonprofit group
that provides computer training to the low-income elderly, said,
"There's absolutely nothing in here I can't learn." |
