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Leapfrog Launches GBA-Style Educational Handheld

Posted by simoniker on from the time-to-reverse-engineer? dept.

Thanks to Yahoo/Reuters for their story on the launch of Leapfrog's educational handheld, the Leapster. The article says the handheld is "aimed at giving parents an alternative to Nintendo's GameBoy system, [and] plays educational games and interactive videos." It retails for $79, with game cartridges costing around $25, and a Leapfrog spokesman commented on the reasoning behind today's launch: "A half a million GameBoys were sold last year for kids in the 3-1/2 to 6-1/2-year-old age group, but try to get parents to admit that in a focus group. This is a completely untapped market."

3 of 28 comments (clear)

  1. hackability by enigmatichmachine · · Score: 3, Interesting

    can some one give the tech specs for it, i couldn't find it on the web site....(but what 4 year old would care it has a 33 mhz dragonball processor?) seems like it has a nice screen, and is cheap... but then again so are many handhelds these days, what makes this one different?

    --
    -and occasionaly a giant moose.
  2. MOD PARENT DOWN by Acidic_Diarrhea · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Ah, the typical myth that's been pushed around the Internet for years now because Sega once accused Sony of dumping PS1's due to a change in the exchange rate - and people are still using it...and even extending it to the handheld market!

    EDUCATE YOURSELF: How do you know that they are not making a profit on the hardware? Do you even know what is inside one of these things? The widespread myth that all consoles are sold at a loss (and apparently you've extended this belief to the handheld market as well) is simply not true. Nintendo is not selling the Gamecube at a loss. Sony is not selling the PS2 at a loss. Nintendo did not sell the SNES at a loss. Sega did not sell the Genesis at a loss. I can go on and on.

    Furthermore, how does a hardware manufacturer make money on the product? Is it solely by making games? No, there is also licensing money to be made. If a company has a successful piece of hardware, they make money on the hardware (although it is usually a slim profit margin) and they make money on any games they make and they make money on licenses to other companies. Honestly, yes, it's more "safe" to sell educational games for the GBA but the possible returns on this would be significantly less. Did you not even read the story blurb? This is an untapped market meaning that no parents are buying their young children GBAs. Leapfrog has a chance to bring in a piece of hardware that will cement them in place. It also helps the Leapfrog brandname if they sell the actual device rather than just games for the GBA.

    I can't believe you got modded up as insightful. Show me ANY EVIDENCE that a handheld console is being sold at a loss (with the obvious exception of a company trying to dump stock in order to get out of the business). Come on, any bit of evidence - please. That search will fail BECAUSE THERE ISN'T ANY!!!

    --
    I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
  3. Re:I know this is stupid... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
    And pay Nintendo how much in licensing fees per cart? And how much per dev station?
    And sell 1/50,000th the number of copies they might potentially sell otherwise? Seriously, who would want to do something like that?
    Not to mention having the titles stocked in the same shelf as Super Mario Brothers
    Where they'll probably end up anyway?