In an article entitled “New ideas to ease into old age“, Roxana Popescu in the International Herald Tribune of 17 March, 2006, addresses the issue of what ageing Boomers are looking for in healthcare, and some of the trends and products and services emerging in this field. But she makes some great points that are applicable to every industry:
Unobtrusive, preventive, personalized and remote: Welcome to the future of geriatric health care. Increased life spans, more education and more disposable income than any preceding generation means that the baby boomers – those born between 1946 and 1965, the elder members of which are standing on the threshold of retirement – will demand technology as sophisticated as their expectations about aging.
According to estimates by the Metlife Mature Market Institute, the 78 million boomers in the United States are spending more than $1 trillion annually on housing, insurance, pensions, transportation and health care. And they are eager to invest in products that will allow them to feel younger and remain active longer, analysts are finding.
There’s hardly a business that can’t capitalize on the aging of the boomer population.