The elderly appliance market is still awaiting development

In recent years, with the increase of income and the continuous progress of society, the consumption concept of the elderly in China has undergone a tremendous transformation. Some products and services developed specifically for the elderly have also been launched and continuously enriched. According to Ovid Consulting's forecast, only in the urban empty nest elderly households, the annual demand for old-fashioned household appliances will exceed RMB 60 billion.

Older household appliances are not a new concept

It is understood that in the 1990s, Western developed countries proposed the idea that “elderly household appliances should be different from ordinary household electrical appliances” and conducted in-depth research on the characteristics of elderly home appliances, thinking that they are safe, healthy, convenient, and intelligent. The economy is the main focus of such appliances, and on this basis, a series of products have been introduced. These products from the body to the remote control, the number of knobs to a minimum, each function knob is marked with eye-catching, easy-to-read instructions, and the use of eye-catching color logo. For the needs of some special elderly groups, some companies have also introduced more subdivided products, such as -

Whirlpool has introduced washing machines and dryers with drawer supports at the bottom so that elderly people do not have to bend over when placing clothes, and they are equipped with large-sized knobs. These knobs emit a loud sound when set, making it easy to see and hear. Old people use;

Siemens has also launched a kitchen appliance that can automatically cut off the power supply due to food overflow so that it can be used by elderly people with mobility problems.

Japan began to gradually enter the aging society in the 1970s, and the elderly economy has also become one of the development priorities targeted by manufacturers.

Mitsubishi has introduced an ultrasonic rice cooker. In addition to simplifying operations, it has also expanded the size of its LCD screens. The text height has been expanded to 5.5 mm.

In cooperation with telecom operators and Fujitsu, Mizusaki Thermo Corporation has jointly developed an electric kettle for the elderly, which includes a sensory communication system. It can notify the user's contacts of data such as user's water-heating time, time for going out and returning home. , At the same time, it is registered on the special page of the service website of the product to facilitate the family members of the elderly to keep abreast of the situation of the elderly;

Tokyo University of Technology's High-tech Research Center designed a comprehensive sensing and guarding device for the elderly's entire living space, including carpet sensing through pressure sensing, in the "Celebration Technology Development for Elderly Living in Cyberspace" program. Bed sensor, wheelchair sensor, toilet sensor, acceleration sensor, acoustic sensor, infrared sensor, and thermal sensor through position and motion sensing, sphygmomanometer sensing and heartbeat tester through physiological characteristics sensing Sensing, sleep sensing, and urine sensing, as well as the transmission of various information for the elderly to family members or contacts through the use of appliances, water, natural gas, and other daily living equipment.

At present, more Japanese manufacturers will specifically consider the needs of the elderly user groups when developing products. Toshiba plans to develop an elderly auto-navigation system on mobile phones, and can grasp the user's location of the GPS system. Sharp also plans to design home appliances that are suitable for the elderly, including Blu-ray players, televisions, etc. that use simple, easy-to-use design keys.

The elderly home appliance market is rare

Although the elderly household appliances are not new, there are also some related products on the market, but it is not difficult to find that the current home appliance products specifically developed for the elderly in the domestic market are relatively scarce in terms of type and quantity.

The older mobile phones that are more successful are popular because they cater to the actual needs of most elderly people. They are simple in function to meet the basic needs of the elderly for mobile phones, and they are designed to meet the inconvenience of the elderly. . But in addition, there are few other elderly appliances on the market, only some low-end models with simple performance and simple operation. For example, some Soymilk makers targeting the elderly only have the “select” and “start/stop” buttons.

Necessity has become a stumbling block to restricting the development of enthusiasm for the elderly in home appliances. At present, the general view of home appliance companies is that older people have limited types and scope of use of home appliances, and their functional requirements are not high. Existing products (mainly low-end goods) can be completely satisfied, and there is no need for independent development. As a result, older products were retreaded slowly and styled less, and high-tech new products almost gave up this market. This has led to the elderly household appliances consumption is difficult to form the scale it deserves.

The industry believes that the elderly appliances can not simply be equal to the low-end or low-grade matching, on the contrary, the elderly appliances may be more due to the "high-end products" category, because such products can be used to imitate the successful case is not More often than not, the product's life cycle still belongs to the lead-in period. In addition, most of the existing products deliberately avoid the actual situation of the use of special groups such as the elderly (for safety reasons, the risk is high), and also cause the development of such products. Technical blank.

Undoubtedly, in order for the elderly appliance to succeed, it may take more time, effort, and more investment than existing products to conduct pre-market research, mid-term design development, and later product promotion. From the psychological perspective, home appliances developed specifically for the elderly can give the elderly more respect and satisfaction. It should be noted that as the spending power of older groups continues to increase, their potential spending power is being further released.

What kind of household appliances do the elderly need?

On November 19th, the first "Research Report on the Demand of Chinese Old People's Household Appliances" completed by the China Household Electrical Appliances Association and Aowei Consulting was relatively larger in the categories of TV, air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, water heaters, and rice cookers. The use of household appliances with a relatively high frequency started with a thorough investigation of the differentiated needs of household appliances for the elderly.

The "Report" stated that the demand for home appliances for the elderly is mainly reflected in household chores (using refrigerators, washing machines, rice cookers, microwave ovens, soya-bean milk makers, etc.), caring for children and grandchildren (heat milk devices, disinfecting cabinets, game consoles, etc.), and improving lives. Quality (air conditioner, electric fan, bath room, massager, etc.), enrichment of spiritual and cultural life (television, video recorder, tape recorder, etc.). However, existing household electrical appliances are still difficult to meet the needs of the elderly. Taking television as an example, in terms of purchase considerations, the elderly are most concerned about quality, followed by brand, function and after-sales service. In addition to the basic operating functions of television, the elderly have a low frequency of use of other functions. In addition to video on demand, other functions gradually decrease with age. In terms of satisfaction, unsatisfactory points are mainly concentrated on the use of remote control, function use, and external ports. Among them, the problems of remote control are mainly frequent failures, insensitive responses, and too many keyboards and too complex functions. Many, but the interface is cumbersome and does not understand and will not operate; the problem with the external port is that the port behind the TV, the use of mobile TV, and too many ports, can not distinguish the corresponding port.

According to people in the industry, in recent years, both the number of the elderly and the proportion of the total population in China have shown a trend of rapid increase. The demand and use of household appliances by the elderly are also showing differentiated characteristics. The demand for the elderly household appliances market is gradually accelerating. When launching a product, home appliance companies should have capabilities (visual, auditory, tactile, taste and smell, body balance), body response (hand flexibilities, manipulation, exercise, muscle strength and endurance, speech), and cognitive ability ( Innovations in intelligence, memory, language and literacy, and allergies (contact allergy, food allergy, respiratory allergies), such as: Gas stoves should be designed with full consideration of the risk of opening the gas but not being ignited and not discovered in time; Voice assistance should not only be considered clear, but also should take into account factors such as speech speed, intonation, and rhythm; product design should also fully consider that the elderly generally have a poor sense of balance and should avoid physical injuries caused by accidental falls.