Return On Investment

The Southwest Computer Conference is an ideal venue for your company to show Boomers & Zoomers your latest and greatest in technology. Many seniors prefer the hands on, touch and feel approach -- actually seeing the product before they buy. They are then likely to purchase the merchandise immediately.

The over-50 crowd has more disposable income to spend. Howard Byck, vice president of business development for AARP Services recently reported that 40 percent of the U.S. population is 50 or older, but that this group holds 75 percent of the country's financial assets. Seniors are proving to be a valuable and largely untapped market for online sales.

They are finding they have time to learn new technology skills that they might not have had the time or money for in the past. Boomers & Zoomers like to keep up with the latest and greatest that deals with technology: digital cameras, the i’s, computers, online banking, social networking, e-readers, high-tech gadgets and more.

The largest growth on Facebook, MySpace and other sites is coming not from tech-savvy teens, but rather their moms, dads and grandparents. In a recent Blog, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg put the number of his site’s users in perspective: “If Facebook were a country, it would be the eighth most populated in the world, just ahead of Japan, Russia and Nigeria.” Yet this analogy is already outdated. Since February, Facebook membership has surpassed 200 million people, more than all but four countries.

70% of Kindle owners are older than 40 (research by Microsoft & AARP). Baby Boomers, the most avid readers, recognize that eBook readers allow them to carry far more reading material and read it more comfortably (increased font sizes, ease of turning pages). eBook reader consumers are very cost conscious. This may be one of the few technologies that trickle down from an older generation to a younger one. Older users have adopted eBook readers and Twitter more quickly than the younger generation. eBook use may spread to younger people...or a variation might trickle down. It may turn out, for instance, that older readers will choose single purpose devices like the Sony Reader, and younger people may choose a multi-function device like the Apple iPad.