Jitterbug: New Baby Boomer Cell Phone

While most cell phones tout an abundance of features and appear to be either aimed at teens or business people, a start-up company called GreatCall has introduced a phone called Jitterbug to (in their words):

"...provide Baby Boomers and their parents with perfectly simple cell phones and services that work the way they want them to. Jitterbug is designed to be the best telephone a cell phone can be. Nothing more. Nothing less."

The company is aiming squarely at the baby boomer market (and their parents). While the network isn't yet operational, GreatCall says that they will soon start shipping the Samsung-manufactured phones. In order to make them easier to use, the phones have big buttons, a bright screen, easy to read text, and loud and clear sound.

Operators are an important element of Jitterbug's services. Besides looking up numbers or placing calls for customers, operators can program a phone's contact list over the network. Each customer is also provided with an individual webpage that can be used to edit the phone list, or set service options, which means that children or grandchildren can help their less technically adept relatives configure their phones. Jitterbug's pricing has yet to be set.

GreatCall isn't isn't the first mobile company to develop a product aimed specifically at boomers/seniors. Last year, Vodafone launched a somewhat similar service in Europe with a phone combing no-frills phones with uncomplicated price plans.