I admit it. I am a Kindle junkie! As a voracious reader I have fallen in love with the Kindle since its inception. I find it the perfect e-reader for my needs. I travel extensively and it is so convenient to be able to take my library with me in this small, compact device.
As a matter of fact, I was so impressed with the latest Kindle that I decided to give one to my 85 year old mother. She lives in a retirement home and I was amazed by how many seniors living there used the Kindle. Seniors, because of their sedentary lifestyle, are a vast market for this technology. However, after helping Mom learn the device, I was quickly deluged with other requests from seniors living at the home.
I would suggest Amazon redesign a Kindle geared specifically for the senior market. They should completely eliminate the keyboard and enlarge the control keys to make it easier for seniors to negotiate the menu and home pages.
Seniors are not interested in any frills, they simply want to be able to see controls and understand the basics.
The button on the existing kindle is too small for them. The arrows used to negotiate the menu page which are located on the border of the main off/on control are simply invisible for most senior eyes. They simply don’t have the dexterity to utilize such a small control button. If Kindle could separate these functions into different, larger controls they would entice an increasingly large segment of our population to converting to the Kindle. The option of enlarging the font is absolutely vital to seniors. This was genius to include that function.
With the baby-boomer generation getting older, Kindle needs to capitalize on this emerging market.