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Leapfrog Launches GBA-Style Educational Handheld
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."
But wouldn't it be easier just to make education GBA games? After all, you don't make profit on the hardware....
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.
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!!!
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Leapfrog doesn't make things for teenagers. The users that Leapfrog is aiming for would tear a GBA to shreds in a few hours.
My 16 month old son LOVES Leapfrog toys. They keep his attention far longer than any of the other toys he has. They are also educational, brightly colored, and fun looking. GBA's are small, have tiny buttons, are boring to look at from a toddler's point of view, have many opening to stick crumbs and other things into, and the clamshell design on the new ones would almost immedeately get torn in half.
Looking at it from the perspective of a parent, I think my son would love one of these. When he's a teenager, he'll want something more advanced, but for now this would be great for him. I think Leapfrog knows what they're doing here.