Doro, a Swedish telecom company that creates easy to use mobile devices for seniors, has acquired Prylo SAS, a France-based Android developer, reports InvestInEU. The purchase price for the company was 1.35 million EUR. The news comes shortly after Doro competitor GreatCall, which offers the senior-focused Jitterbug mobile phone service, announced its first smartphone app: MedCoach for the iPhone.

Doro’s upcoming products will run on the Android OS. Prylos SAS has an impressive history, which lead to it being acquired: It previously developed mobile applications for French telecom operators including SFR, Ten and mobile health applications for INRA and Mobile Health. In 2010, it began focusing on applications for seniors, and were selected to participate in a program financed by the French government, called Proxima mobile, by developing a mobile application (called Tel & Age) that provides seniors with services related to comfort, assistance and health. 

The app is available soon in France.

In 2009 Doro's CEO Jerome Arnaud told MobiHealthNews that the company was not in the business of convincing seniors to avoid smartphones: “Provided you can still use a BlackBerry or an iPhone at 80-years-old,” Arnaud said, Doro has “no interest in persuading you to do otherwise.”

“Even 'seniors' can not be called one group,” Arnaud said at the time. “We have to be much more accurate when determining our demographic. Age is often not the best criteria... We clearly understand that within the group of people who are 75-years-old, there are sub groups with totally different social behaviors and activity levels."

Thanks to this acquisition, it's clear now -- in 2011 -- that Doro sees an opportunity to reach some of those in the senior market through Android devices.

More from this article over at InvestEU