In February 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, which broke apart on approach to land, shocked the entire world. In Austria, following much back and forth, the new black-blue government was sworn in, and Michael Walchhofer, Stephan Eberharter and Michaela Dorfmeister won gold medals for the Austrian Ski Association at the World Championships in Sankt Moritz.
At the same time, the Linz company Emporia traveled to the film city of Cannes on the Cote d’Azur to present its new product at the 3GSM World Congress. At the time, the event was seen as a harbinger of the Mobile World Congress, the largest mobile communications trade fair in Europe. In Cannes, Emporia presented a mobile phone with large buttons, an emergency call button and a ringtone that “babbled like a baby”. At least that’s how the smartphone manufacturer from Linz puts it according to their own statements.
20 years following the presentation of the first smartphone specially designed for seniors, Emporia has sold around 16 million cell phones. It is said that three million people are currently making calls with a smartphone or mobile phone that was developed and designed in Austria.
Despite technological advances, the company has not changed the most important parameters: simple menu navigation and usability, readability, loudspeakers, large buttons, robustness and an emergency button. “Even today, every mobile phone from us is equipped with the patented emergency button, because security is and will remain an important issue in old age,” says Eveline Pupeter, owner and managing director of Emporia.
In development, Emporia works together with universities and research institutions, such as the University of Cambridge, Chemnitz University of Technology, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Kepler University in Linz.
First 5G smartphone planned
This summer, the company wants to launch the first senior smartphone with the 5G mobile standard. In the past financial year (as of the end of June), around 110 employees at Emporia had a turnover of around 40 million euros. There are also locations in Brussels, Frankfurt, Helsinki, London, Milan, Paris and Shenzhen in China. (Rome)
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Martin Roithner
