Sales of a ‘one-button computer’ designed to help the elderly stay in touch have surged.
The product, called KOMP, is the brainchild of Norwegian start-up No Isolation.
It is designed to resemble an old TV or radio set and helps seniors who might have trouble using or be intimidated by a regular computer or tablet.
The company has sold 1,800 units over this March and April, compared to 650 of the devices in the whole of 2019.
The current pandemic and accompanying worldwide lockdowns have driven sales, of course, but as the name implies, No Isolation was already on a mission to break down barriers and increase social contact for vulnerable groups.
As well as KOMP, it also produces a robot called AV1 for children with long-term illnesses.
The company was started in Oslo in 2015 with the belief that the vast majority of tech products were designed to make “efficient people more efficient”.
Co-founder and CEO Karen Dolva told Forbes: ‘The greatest change that we’ve seen is in the mentality of our customers.
‘Before the pandemic many people lacked urgency in bringing the senior population online, but now they recognize they have to try everything to get them digitally connected.’
KOMP allows the sender to control calls
The KOMP was launched in 2018 and is available in Norway, the UK, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands.
It does not have a touchscreen and can accept a call with no confirmatory action from the user.
There is a countdown from 10 and the two-way video and audio call can then be connected automatically.
As well as face-to-face chat, the KOMP can receive media including photos and videos.
The process is controlled by the person initiating the call or sending the media, which means that the person on the other end doesn’t need any technical know-how to stay in touch.
The most used features, Dolva says, are sending photos and making video calls.
The photos are most often sent by grandchildren to their grandparents, while the majority of video calls are initiated by grown-up children to elderly parents.
Before the coronavirus crisis, devices received an average of two video calls per week, but this has now grown to nine.
The average number of photos has also grown from 11 before the pandemic to 18 currently.
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