New Delhi, Oct 20 (IANS): Philips Mobile Monday launched Philips Xenium X2566, a feature phone exclusively designed for senior citizens, and said it was available for sale priced at Rs.3,800.

The phone is aimed at making technology accessible to the elderly. It has features like large font size, long lasting battery life and SOS function, a company statement said here.

"Philips has always pioneered in cutting-edge innovations that matter to our customers. With changing lifestyles in metros in India and increasing incident of elderly abuse, senior citizens are often left to support themselves by choice or otherwise. We specially designed this phone to make technology more accessible to and user-friendly for the elderly with minimum intervention from others," S.S. Bassi, country manager-SAARC, Sangfei Mobility said.

Senior citizens are often inconvenienced by the standard phones available in the market due to their small font size, short battery life and fragility, Bassi pointed out.

According to Pew Research Internet Group, elderly citizens face several difficulties while adopting new technologies. Two in five elderly citizens indicated that they have a "physical or health condition that makes reading difficult or challenging" or a "disability, handicap, or chronic disease that prevents them from fully participating in many common daily activities".

The phone has SOS function that enables users to set three 'emergency' or SOS numbers. In case of an emergency, users can press the SOS button hidden under the flashlight to dial out the pre-set SOS numbers.