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Japanese robots in the news again; elderly aren’t buying them

Personally, I never bought the line that Japan was in a rush to develop robots to care for its elders in order to provide them with personal care and attention that would not have to possibly be provided by a foreigner. Of course, with Japan’s upcoming demographic crunch, it’s probably not a bad idea to mechanize some repetitive, low skill tasks - such as…ahem…making sushi.

Ok, that’s half tongue in cheek. But the point is this: over the past two years or so, I have seen several articles in the foreign media, including a notable one by the Economist, state that one of the driving factors behind Japan’s research and development in the robotics field was due to the fact that elderly Japanese people would rather be taken care of by a robot than a foreigner.

This is hogwash, of course. Last week, a article entitled Japanese wrinklies spurn robot helpers appeared in The Register. My first reaction was, “Well, they can’t afford them right now.” My second reaction was, “Who let that headline through?”

The article cites a recent Reuters article that dealt with the issue of poor robot sales. Reuters quotes Ruth Campbell, a social worker in Tokyo, as saying:

Most (elderly) people are not interested in robots. They see robots as overly-complicated and unpractical. They want to be able to get around their house, take a bath, get to the toilet and that’s about it.

What do they want? Simpler, easier tools with big buttons and loud audio (Hey Apple, get the iPhone over here now). But seriously, the problem seems to be that Japan’s manufacturers simply don’t know what the market actually needs or wants. Reuters tells us:

Kitchenware maker Zojirushi Corp. offers the i-pot, an electric kettle equipped with a radio transmitter that sends e-mail twice a day to relatives to let them know if Grandma has made tea. Some 3,300 of the devices are in use across Japan.

That’s stupid. How could people sit in meetings and say, “That will sell” to each other? These products are still expensive and too difficult for elderly people to use. Also, it doesn’t help when their functionality is stupid to begin with.

Zojirushi, free advice: Find out what the market wants and build it for them. You’re not a particularly innovative firm, never have been, and you don’t need to be - nor do your customers expect it. Your products make hot water; by all accounts, Neanderthals pulled this one off. Make a pot with a huge button that says, “ON” and “OFF.” Hell, I’d buy it.

Another simple lesson: Keep products and services in tune with needs and desires.

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