Creative Destruction: $7 iPad App Replaces $15,000, 20 Pound Communication Device

Bloomberg -- "Emma Edwards, 26, has no control over the fine motor muscles in her hands, which stay tightly and awkwardly clenched. She also can’t talk, walk or move her arms more than 20 inches at a time. Edwards, who suffered brain damage in 2001, can write e- mails, though, and she’s revisiting a favorite pastime, sketching, for the first time in a decade, thanks to her iPad and software applications that can cost as little as $7. 

 That’s a switch from the $15,000 communication device she had tried, a 9-pound machine approved by her insurer that tracks eye movement on a special grid corresponding to the alphabet. That device kept her tied to those in the room around her. The iPad, along with several other consumer-driven apps, has reopened the world to her. 

RJ Cooper & Associates, a closely held maker of software, accessories and applications for disabled people, has seen 85 percent of its business switch to the iPad in the past two years since Cupertino, California-based Apple introduced the tablet, according to R.J. Cooper, the Laguna Niguel, California-based company’s founder."

“The consumers took the lead this time,” Cooper said. “Parents are hiring people to create apps because they’re sick and tired of what’s available: 20-pound devices they can’t take to the playground.” 

HT: Gale Pooley