There have been a few attempts at developing smartphones and feature-phones specifically for the elderly. Doro, a Sweden-based mobile phone company, plans to take a stab at this lucrative market with the PhoneEasy 740, an Android-based smartphone which will hopefully deliver a useable mobile experience for the aged.
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The PhoneEasy 740 is (oddly enough) an Android slider phone with the OS hidden by what the developers are calling the “Doro Experience”. The Doro Experience hides Android behind layers of simplicity. Gone is the marketplace, with widgets and homescreen also bowing out. Customisation is swapped for functionality and the PhoneEasy 740 is all the more accessible for that.
How’s the screen though — the single most important feature of the device? According to reports, the screen is “bright, and great for displaying the UI’s large text”. So that’s a win, but what if grandma slips and falls in the shower, how does she quickly ring her children? Doro has added a rear-button to the 740 which can be customised for any number. When the button is pressed, the phone continually calls the number until help is on its way.
Doro may hide the app marketplace, but it isn’t sitting with its hands under its ass. Doro plans to release its own apps in-house and eventually support third-party apps, such as a medicine dose reminder and a possible Facebook application. And then there is the “Experience Manager” which gives remote app access to possible 740 users. Family members can now wrest full control of the phones every feature.
The 740 launches in Spring, State-side. To push the phone out to the correct market, Doro is aiming to sell the device at chemist stores. Expect orders of hip medication, Viagra and smartphones to dominate drug stores, soon.
