How IBM and Apple Plan to Hook Japanese Elders on iPads

Five million older adults in Japan will be hooked on iPads by 2020 if Apple and IBM have their way.

The 2 American technology giants are partnering with a government-owned Japanese company to incorporate “quality of life” iPad applications into an existing service that regularly checks on older adults and reports back to relatives about their well-being.

Japan Post, which provides postal, banking and insurance services, will initially distribute the free iPads to 1,000 customers in its subscription-based “watch over” program, according to Fast Company. The iPads will be offered to all Japan Post customers by next year, with the goal of distributing the mini-computers to 4-5 million older customers by 2020.

“It’s pretty smart for a company with daily access to people's homes, like the postal service, to expand into elder care,” says Fast Company about new enterprise.  

Quality of Life Apps

Each iPad will come with a collection of “quality of life” apps that let older users schedule medical reminders, shop, make doctor appointments, and order maintenance, cleaning, and transportation services.

The apps, created by IBM, will have simple designs and large buttons to make them easier for older adults to use. They will also come with accessibility features like large type, closed captioning, dictation and voice-over technology.

New Opportunities for the Partners

Data will be a key byproduct of the iPad program. Although that data will be de-personalized, the partners will be able to analyze it and “help [customers] make better decisions," Bridget van Kralingen, IBM's senior vice president of global business services, told Fast Company. "Some of those combinations of data I think will be quite helpful and interesting."

For Apple and IBM, the new partnership is part of a larger business strategy to develop enterprise-specific apps for health care, banking, transportation and insurance, according to Home Health Care News.

But MarketWatch suggests that Apple has another motive: finding a way to “stem bleeding iPad sales.” The announcement of the new partnership came a few days after Apple reported a 29% year-over-year decline in iPad sales, reports MarketWatch.