Download Japan's Shift in Cell Phone Market: Targeting Senior Citizens - Prof. Carol E. Wolf and more Study Guides, Projects, Research Computer Science in PDF only on Docsity! Paul Dumoulin CS 312 Dr. Wolf Chapter 41: Japan’s Generation of Computer Refuseniks The article “Cell Phone Companies Set Their Sights on Senior Citizens” was written by Bruce Rutledge and is an interesting follow-up to Tim Clark’s “Japan’s Generation of Computer Resuseniks”. It was written in two-thousand three and can be found on the Japan Media Review website that is a joint project between the University of Southern California’s school of east Asian studies and school of communication. It focuses on a new market that cell phone companies are targeting in Japan, older people. A major problem for cell-phone companies in Japan is that the traditional and largest market of cell-phone users, young people, is saturated. Japanese youth easily spend one hundred dollars a month on their cell phone bill. It is estimated that Japan spends three hundred million dollars a year on ring tones alone and four hundred sixty six million dollars a year on mobile games 1(Rutledge). A drop in newspaper readers in Japan was attributed to newer cell phone that offers web access. Arjen van Blokland, the vice president of international business development at 104.com, a mobile service provider in Tokyo, said "The market does not seem to grow at double digits anymore… This is one reason why content providers are looking for market segmentation ". The new market is the opposite of what the image of the typical cell-phone user is today. The company Cybird, which created the market for cell-phone downloads in Japan, is considering targeting older customers due to a drop in profits. Companies want to target older people for several reasons. Firstly they have more money than younger customers. The birth rate is also lower and the population age average is increasing, so older people represent a large available market. The most popular cell phone service in Japan, forty million strong, has only twenty two percent of customers over fifty 1(Rutledge). The challenges are that such a demographic has a harder time dealing with small screens, and most of the content available through cell-phones is geared towards the traditional market made up of young people. Over forty year old customers mainly use their phone for voice communication, but are learning that they too can benefit from additional features. Parents are discovering text messaging to keep in touch with children, and businessmen commuting are using video phones to say goodnight to their children. Older customers are also using email alerts to get the latest news, weather reports, and sports scores. The ‘Raku Raku’ phone was designed for the older demographic and features larger and simpler buttons and displays and a newer model even features a pedometer 1(Rutledge). Classes on cell- phone usage are even offered to seniors. If communications companies in Japan are to survive, they must venture into the only large market left. They hope that the desire to always be connected does not just exist among young people. Nihon Keizai Shimbun, author of “Pioneers of the Content Business” believes that such new business strategies will be successful because seniors have more difficulty moving around and will embrace mobile technology 1(Rutledge). 1Rutledge, Bruce. "Cell Phone Companies Set Their Sights on Senior Citizens." Japan Media Review. 5 Dec. 2003. University of Southern California. <http://www.ojr.org/japan/wireless/1069371013.php>.
