Pity the Boomers who wrote their college term papers on typewriters and have endured careers in which telephone land lines have become cell phones and computing has gone from room-sized to desktop to laptop to notebook and iPhone. Not all have kept up every step of the way; there are holdouts who proudly report that they refuse to carry cell phones.
But as the population ages, its creating huge markets for medicines and medical devices. Fortunately, there's an app for that. In fact, there's been an explosion of iPhone medical apps--some 500 out of the total 35,000, according to a report in Ad Age.
Some of these apps--like a prototype that lets diabetics connect their glucometers to the iPhone for reading by a database that measures, charts, and interprets, helping the user adjust medications and diet--could be a great help to patients.
A 2008 Rubicon Consulting analysis, however, shows the sweet spot for iPhone users is the 26- to 40-year-old age bracket; there's a big drop-off in the over-50 crowd. Yet medical apps are the third fastest-growing category for Apple, trailing only games and travel downloads, according to O'Reilly Media as quoted in the Ad Age article.
- read the Ad Age report
- read the Rubicon study (pdf)