Website design By BotEap.comCommunications and convenience giant (Nasdaq: RIMM) RIM, maker of the ubiquitous Blackberry, foresees a number of defining trends ahead. These reflect the themes of my own research and are the cornerstones of the MIT AgeLab.

Website design By BotEap.comMotley Fool’s Dan Dzombak’s Jan. 26 article, “4 Key Trends RIM’s Futurist Foresees,” reports on a talk given by RIM’s Futurist Technology and Innovation Manager, Joseph Dvorak, PhD. Dr. Dvorak identifies four trends affecting the future of smartphones:

Website design By BotEap.com(1) The world is aging: the average age of the planet in 2000 was 26 years, by mid-century it will be 36 and the number of people over 60 will triple, to almost two billion people;

Website design By BotEap.com(2) Connectivity: Smartphones, other wireless devices and providers will blur activity, locate and drive the trends we already see in social media and engagement;

Website design By BotEap.com(3) Empowered Consumers: Consumers will continue to embrace tools that help them control and manage their relationship with businesses, for example, social networks that provide advice on everything from restaurant choices to financial services to ‘hey, where? is my package?’

Website design By BotEap.com(4) Purchase of ‘values’ (eg green consumers). Buying securities is not just for children. Where there is a rise in ’causes of color’ (my phrase) — buy green, support pink, and help red — aging baby boomers are increasingly interested in their social impact and legacy. That is, ‘what am I contributing and what will I leave behind?’

Website design By BotEap.comPerspectives and innovations

Website design By BotEap.comOn their own, these trends are interesting and both business and government need to be aware of their potential impact in the future. However, the future of aging and innovation is a combination of these trends, not the extension of either.

Website design By BotEap.comWhat happens when older consumers are omnipresently connected, empowered, and make purchasing decisions on values ​​beyond cost and quality? For example, what would wireless health or care services look like in the pocket of an aging boomer? Will ubiquitous computing power, social networking, and value buying create virtual collaborative networks of service providers for embedded boomers today and frail boomers tomorrow? Can you imagine the emergence of an ecological transport service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, always ‘visible’ on your smartphone, for a social network of ‘friends’?

Website design By BotEap.comThe business opportunity is not just about being aware of these trends, but about combining them, visualizing competing realities, and seeing these alternative futures as drivers of product and service innovation.