|
|
Computers for 3-Year-Olds
By
Olga Kharif
Business Week
8/9/07
Toy and PC makers are rolling out computers and
digital tools for the youngest audience yet
When Chiara Jannotta Rothenberg was just 18
months old, her parents started sitting her on
their laps to watch photo slide shows on the
home computer. By the time she was 2, Chiara was
slowly punching keyboard buttons with her little
fingers in Microsoft (MSFT) Word. “She wanted
to learn what mommy was doing,” explains her
mother, Jacqueline. Now 4, Chiara plays
interactive games on kids’ Web sites,
including Viacom’s (VIA) Noggin.com. She is
among a growing number of children using
computers and other digital devices practically
from the cradle—creating what toy and computer
makers see as a new market opportunity.
While kid-friendly electronics—keyboards,
software, and even laptops—are nothing new,
most have been geared toward children ages 7 to
12, and many haven’t done very well. In 2004,
Disney (DIS) released a computer with Mickey
Mouse ears for the under-12 crowd. But like many
other early gadgets, it has come and gone.
Perhaps, since many parents just let their
school-age children use the “adult”
computer, there wasn’t much demand for a
dedicated, specialized machine for children.
Mess-Proof Computing
Now, electronics makers are realizing that the
real, untapped opportunity for hardware may lie
in catering to an even younger crowd: 3- to
6-year-olds, whose undeveloped motor skills and
messy habits (think grape-juice spills and
cookie crumbs) prompt most parents to keep their
offspring away from their computers, or only
allow supervised use. Seeing their parents
tinker daily at personal computers, many kids
want PCs of their own for game-playing and
exploring the Web.
And parents don’t appear to be becoming any
less uptight about handing over the keyboard to
the family PC. According to surveys by
consultancy NPD Group, an average child in the
U.S. now starts using a computer at the age of
5½, only a slight decline from two years ago,
when that average age hovered at 5.7 years old.
The question, then, is whether those parents
might be more apt to buy a separate computer or
device designed specifically for their little
spillers. An array of companies, from toymakers
LeapFrog Enterprises (LF), VTech, and Mattel
(MAT), to computer maker Hewlett-Packard (HPQ),
appear to think the answer is yes, and recent
market research suggests they may be right.
Last year, 46% of consumers purchased a
high-tech gadget for a child 3 to 5 years of
age, the highest spending level on behalf of any
children’s age group, according to the survey
by In-Stat. That’s a huge shift from a few
years ago, when the highest percentage of such
spending went toward purchases for kids ages 5
to 10. In-Stat also estimates that the market
for edutainment toys will more than triple from
$2.1 billion last year to $7.3 billion in 2011.
Toymakers are discovering that “if a toy has
purported educational value, parents are more
likely to buy it,” says Stephanie Ethier, an
analyst with In-Stat.
PC Kids
This fall, HP plans to sell its first desktop
PCs designed for families with younger children.
The devices will be bundled with JumpStart
learning software and a special kid-friendly
operating system that sits on top of Windows and
filters inappropriate Web content. “We are
taking our current product line and providing
software that will help kids learn,” explains
Sean Patterson, senior product manager for
consumer desktops at HP.
LeapFrog’s new $60 ClickStart is a wireless
keyboard for 3- to 6-year-olds that’s designed
to withstand liquid and drops from as high as
two feet. The full QWERTY keyboard is shaped
like a green dog with a full-featured computer
mouse in its paw. The wireless signal connects
with a console that you plug into a television,
turning your TV set into a computer monitor for
games that familiarize kids with using a
keyboard and mouse. “It’s the first product
that we’ve ever done that’s reflective of
the trend that the age of kids using computers
continues to decline,” says Jeff Katz, chief
executive of LeapFrog.
VTech, which says its sales of educational
gadgets have been growing at a 25% annual clip,
recently introduced the Whiz Kid Learning
System. A tablet-like computer equipped with a
touch keyboard and stylus, the device features
more than 120 activities designed to promote
reading skills. The Whiz Pad can also be
connected to a regular computer to print out
activity pages, play additional games, and let
parents track a child’s progress. Older kids
can transform the Whiz Pad into a piano
keyboard.
Gadget-Toting Tots
Meanwhile, demand for kid-friendly laptops has
been on the rise. VTech, which introduced its
Tote ‘N Go laptop for 3- to 5-year-olds in
2004, is about to ramp up marketing for a new
one: the $130 Color Blast Notebook for
6-year-olds. Designed to resemble an adult
laptop, the color-screen device is programmed to
teach topics ranging from Spanish to space
exploration.
Among other toymakers, Disney’s consumer
product division is set to launch a digital
video camera that’s designed to teach
6-year-olds to edit movies. And Mattel, which
last October acquired electronic-game maker
Radica, recently introduced Girl Tech Video
Journal, a digital camera that lets girls 6
years and older snap pictures and video. The
camera comes with a dock that uploads the images
to a computer; the child can then use the
accompanying software to create collages and
journal entries.
For slightly older kids, Mattel plans to release
IM-Me, a $65 wireless device that sends text
messages to other IM-Me users. The BlackBerry-like
handheld transmits messages to a home PC, which
forwards them to recipients over the Internet.
With these new gadgets, “you don’t have to
worry about kids gumming up your mouse. You don’t
have to be constantly scolding them,” says
Joanne Oppenheim, an editor of Oppenheim Toy
Portfolio, an influential toy review newsletter.
“Do preschoolers need computers? No—and they
are not going to get your child into Harvard
sooner. Do they want to play with computers?
Absolutely.”
This article is copyrighted material, the use of
which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We
are making such material available in our efforts to advance
understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,
democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this
constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided
for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17
U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the
included information for research and educational purposes. For more
information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml If
you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your
own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner
|
|
|
|
