Tablets and tech trends for the iTot generation | Key4Communications |

There is no escaping them. You see them everywhere: iTots. Those little consumers who have their hands all over the family iPhone, iPad, and other tablet computers, smartphones, and mobile devices. It’s the touch screen that draws them in —it’s so intuitive. They just start tapping, dragging, zooming, playing, and exploring. So, it is no surprise that toy manufacturers and other new industry players have entered the market with products specifically designed to appeal to kids, using new touch screen interfaces, accelerometers, and other technologies that mimic the activities found on their parents’ devices.

These more toyetic versions are specifically designed with a child’s developmental needs in mind, ergonomically designed to fit a child’s small hands, and generally priced to fit a parent’s wallet.  

For Kids of All Ages
With 70 adult tablet computers unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, it was no surprise to retailers that kids’ tablet products would soon follow. The offerings in the kids’ market range in retail price from $40 to over $400, so there are a wide variety of products and a vast difference in the targeted age ranges and operating systems, as well as the type of content they provide.

Some parents are seeking products that can teach their children and give them an educational edge. Other parents look for multipurpose devices that can provide some creative play options for their children, as tools for tapping their child’s imaginative and artistic talents. Others are happy simply to provide a temporary distraction for their toddlers, or their older children, when they are in need of a few minutes of relief.

For the educational product segment, parents feel less guilty allowing their children screen time since they feel that their children are learning and actively engaging in interactive play while they are having fun. In a recent report from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, titled Families Matter: Designing Media for a Digital Age, 69% of surveyed parents believe that certain games (interactive digital games and video games) can promote academic skills.

The study also found that “mobile devices can be considered anytime, anywhere learning tools. They can enhance networked play and learning by allowing kids to take the necessary hardware outside, from home to school to Grandma’s house, for uninterrupted continuity of experience.”

This year, educational learning toy manufacturers have provided a variety of technology-based product offerings. Many products have skill-leveling components built in, which measure a child’s abilities, and then adjust the difficulty level to suit the child. As the child masters the activities, the product will offer more difficult tasks, providing constant engagement and age-appropriate challenges.

Educational Learning Tools
We have already seen brisk sales for the LeapPad Explorer, which was an early entrant into the children’s tablet market. The pre-sales outsold first available quantities, indicating that parents and caregivers were excited enough about the product to open their wallets. The educational content for this new LeapPad platform is cross-compatible with past Leapster Explorer products, providing an incentive for parents who had already invested heavily in LeapFrog platforms, and for retailers who sell both systems.

VTech gained strong traction last year with MobiGo and the VReader. The VTech InnoTab Learning App Tablet offers an expanded educational experience, and is launching this fall. The InnoTab is designed to enhance reading and curriculum skills, and it also encourages creative play by offering games, videos, and an art studio.  

Both the LeapFrog LeapPad and the VTech InnoTab promise to have libraries of at least 100 titles by year’s end, through a combination of physical cartridges and downloadable digital content. Both manufacturers also have online tools where parents can track and monitor their children’s milestones and achievements on these devices.

Oregon Scientific expanded its portable tools offerings last year with the BarbieBerry, a PDA-type device that performed role-play tasks, simulating a Blackberry device. This fall, Oregon Scientific is introducing the Barbie Touch Screen Fashion Tablet, loaded with 30 touch screen learning activities.
 
For Aspiring Young Technologists
For parents and retailers who embrace digital learning for infants and toddlers, a new manufacturer, Rullingnet Corporation, is offering the Vinci Tablet, an upscale version of a kids’ tablet computer that runs on the sophisticated Android operating system. Starting at an infant-toddler age and growing with skill-leveled activities for children to age 5, this product is currently being sold at Fred Segal, on Amazon, and at other upscale retailers.

Designed to stimulate early learning play experiences and to encourage inquisitive exploring, this tablet computer incorporates the Vinci Early Learning Curriculum. Developed by child psychologists, the activities encourage fine motor and social/emotional skills, language and cognitive skills, and logic and sorting activities. As a child progresses through the activities, it offers more advanced skills.

Encouraging Creativity
Many parents want to encourage their children’s innate skills and abilities, and provide products that will encourage their budding artists. Creative tech products that offer special tools to enhance the tablet drawing experience are sought out by these consumers.

The THQ uDraw Game Tablet with Instant Artist software is a multifaceted drawing tablet device that offers a wide range of tutorials for young artists and a variety of tools that teach skills for playing, drawing, printing, and sharing artist creations in HD. Last year, the uDraw Game Tablet was available only for use with the Wii gaming system. Now, new versions are available to interact with the Microsoft Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Crayola has partnered with Griffin Technologies to create a coloring stylus tool, with which kids can create artwork on their family tablet computer, and then save their creations to share with the family. With a free downloadable app, the Crayola iMarker and Crayola Color Studio HD iPad app allow kids to create “live” animated coloring pages, which move and react as kids color, offering an interactive coloring experience complete with music, special effects, and animations. The ColorStudio HD app features a built-in library of art in themed environments, and children can select their artist tool of choice, whether it is crayons, markers, colored pencils, or a paintbrush.

Get into Gaming
Many consumers have tried various gaming apps (i.e. Angry Birds or Plants Vs. Zombies) and game-lite versions of favorite games ( Rush Hour, Scrabble, Tetris, etc.) for smartphones, mobile phones, and tablet computers.

Now, innovative manufacturers are also developing physical products that work in tandem with these devices to create gaming play options for the whole family. According  to market research firm IHS iSuppli, shipments of tablets will rise to 262.1 million units in 2015, up from 17.4 million in 2010. Smartphone shipments are projected to increase to more than 1 billion units in 2015, up from 294.3 million in 2010, according to the firm. Other research suggests that up to 85 percent of families who are buying tablet devices are fully intending for those devices to be used as part of the family entertainment experience.

Identity Games, a Netherlands-based game manufacturer, has created the Game-Changer, a game board where the iPad slides into a sleeve and uses the tablet as a tool for a multi-player, multi-touch game experience. Scoring, asking questions, and advancing gameplay are all managed by the iPad device. The first products will hit market in the U.S. in November, with additional Game-Changer sleeves available for supplementing game libraries next year.

Discovery Bay Games has developed a series of games that overlay gameplay to the tablet experience. These products will be launched nationally this month. Duo Plink is a new way for people to connect with a game device that creates a multi-touch, multi-player gaming experience. The Duo Plink device fits over the iPad, provides the questions, and keeps score.

New Options for the iPhone
The iPhone has spawned a wide variety of gaming options and is a portable distraction tool for all ages for those idle moments in-between activities. Multiple manufacturers are creating new physical devices to connect players in new ways to their favorite device.

Discovery Toys designed a simple Pinball Magic device that  converts your iPhone or iPod Touch into a miniature pinball machine, and the company’s iCade transforms these devices into an arcade gameplay experience, allowing players to play their favorite classic Atari games, complete with a joystick.

Even the youngest consumers are experiencing play options with the iPhone while busy parents are on the go. The “pass-back effect” is often used to quiet or distract a baby with an iPhone for a few minutes at a time, when busy parents and caregivers are running errands or driving the car.

Fisher-Price recognized the concern of handing an expensive device to a toddler, and introduced the Laugh ’n Learn Apptivity Case, which is designed to encase the iPhone, locking it into place with an easy-to-grasp handheld rattle device. Now babies and toddlers can play with apps, watch videos or talk to grandparents while parents conduct their business.

With these new overlay products tied to smartphones and tablet devices, retailers have a variety of options available to expand their family and children’s technology offerings. As more manufacturers build alliances with technology providers, and as penetration of tablets, smartphones, and other multitasking devices increases the family technology toolbox, retailers need to think ahead about how to incorporate these products into the current in-store or online product mix. This may pose a challenge for some retailers and a growing opportunity for others. Expect this segment of the business to grow exponentially in 2012, as more manufacturers take advantage of the mobile consumer and their technology-hungry families.