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Disney Enters PC Market

Posted by timothy on from the instant-flop-predicts-timothy dept.

Zebbers writes "Disney announced today from NYC that they are entering the personal computer market. With a childish design, built in content control and other kid-friendly features, it could be a breakthrough or just another specialized device flop. Do children really need their own specialized computer?" johnpaul191 points out that frogdesign designed the box, and writes "It looks sort of like a squared-off eMac (but blue), and has a flat mouse-shaped front (the ears are speakers!). It uses a a pen for on-screen input, as well as a keyboard and mouse."

7 of 341 comments (clear)

  1. bugmenot by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 3, Informative

    Account #1
    user: stupid6
    pass: stupid

    fyi.

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  2. Reg Free by c0dedude · · Score: 3, Informative

    Go Here and click top link.

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  3. It's been done before... but not so well. by LostCluster · · Score: 4, Informative

    Mattel has tried this trick before by licensing their Barbie and Hot Wheels brands to a small PC maker known as Patriot Computers back in 1999.

    However, parents who paid $699 for the units just before Christmas Y2K got seriously burned when Patriot Computers went bankrupt. Nearly 1100 customers ended up out their money and getting only a $100 coupon for Matel products. For families that only had $700 to spend on toys for the kids, this was a fiasco.

  4. Re:Everyone remember what a hit the Barbie PC was? by Technically+Inept · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's true that the OP didn't RTFA, but it should be noted that a similarly configured Dell (the lowest model they have with some RAM tacked on) is currently priced at $476, including monitor and speakers. So there is definitely a sizeable Disney premium on a decidedly low-end system. Tough sell.

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  5. Re:Didn't we already try this, i.e., PC JR? by RatBastard · · Score: 3, Informative

    Actually, the PC jr. was IBM's attempt at making a home computer at all. In some ways it was tehcnologically superior to the IBM PC, but its complete lack of DMA made it useless for anything more demanding than Word Perfect 4.2 for DOS.

    I never owned one, but a good friend (as opposed to all of my evil friends) had two of them.

    The Color Computer 3 was Tandy's last-ditch effort to keep its venerable Color Computer line afloat. I owned a Color Computer 2 for a while and they were fun, if not limited, computers.

    (I am a huge nerd.)

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  6. USA Today article by Joey+Patterson · · Score: 3, Informative

    USA Today has an article about this as well, along with a photo of the monitor with "mouse ears" and a matching blue printer.

  7. Re: Mickey Mouse operation by Luigi30 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Microsoft doesn't make them. They're rebranded.

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