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Disney Enters PC Market
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."
Kids hate using things that are purposefully crippled for kids. Adults seem to forget that at the same time they are buying the same basketball shoes Shaq wears and the same skis the US Olympic team wears. People want to use the gear they envision themselves using in the best of all worlds. For kids that means using what adults use.
The market of people who are willing to pay several thousand dollars for an underpowered PC because it appeals to their children is a small one.
Besides, we should have all learned by now that if you plop a small child in front of a normal PC they will figure things out at an alarming rate. No animated rodent middle-man required.
lysergically yours
Seriously, I've seen MickyMouse-ized TVs, TV/VCRs, and even telephones (my mom actually HAS a Mickey Mouse telephone). Is Disney actually manufacturing this computer instead of just licensing it? Even then, I really, really do not see Disney becoming a Big Name in the computer industry, kids or no kids.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
I hate to say it, but that is one seriously butt-ugly computer. Kudos to them for the Mac SE cases and such, but damn. That thing looks like a Fischer-Price reject.
A Dell Dimension under the desk with an LCD sitting on the desktop seems like something they'll have a chance of still wanting in their room when a few years of growing up have passed.
And that's assuming their tastes haven't shifted from Disney to SpongeBob Squarepants in just a few months' time anyway.
Actually... A SpongeBob PC... Now THAT is an idea.
It's brilliant, really. The guts of a PC are about as much of a commodity market as you can imagine. Just add some flourishes to the OS (which I'm sure MS would be happy to oblige to) -- and here we're talking some new icons, backgrounds, etc. Something I could accomplish in a weekend. Add some kid-friendly interweb-nanny software, some prebundled crappy games, and TADA! you've got a Disney computer which you can now mark up. And since Toby and Caitlin don't need to run Photoshop or FoxPro, it doesn't need 1GB of RAM. Then make each case a different color, sell them as limited editions for one year (Tan and brown Lion King PC available only through fall! Get yours now!), pull in profit.
Genius.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
Anyone remember when they had those Hotwheels PC for boys, and Barbie PC for girls? That company went bankrupt real fast. Apparently this type of marketing is just plain stupid. Kids want "kid-themed" PCs as much as women want "female-themed" cars. Frankly, if I was a kid, I'd be insulted.
Also, the target market (kids who were born in the 90's) know as much about Micky Mouse as I know about Charlie Chaplin. They grew up with Buzz Lightyear, not Micky.
"Glory is fleeting but obscurity is forever" - Napoleon Bonapart.
"(i know i'll get flamed by the 'yro' crowd here at /.)"
No you won't. If you think that, you don't understand our point of view. Most of us that filtering is fine when done by the parents. It's when somebody forces it on us when we get all squealy.
First off, I'm not going to buy my kid a $900 computer just cuz it's blue and has mouse ears. Now to my actual point.
The nifty blue LCD monitor with the ears with speakers in them was obviously designed by someone who doesn't have a kid in the age range this computer is aiming at. I bought my youngest daughter an old Apple 7500 with a 15" monitor when she was about 18 months old so she could play the Jump Start and Blues Clues games, she is now 4 and has graduated to an iMac so she can play internet games, but that's a whole other subject. The monitor is thouroughly covered with stickers, has been colored on with crayons, and generally beat to hell. This is a nice solid CRT, think of what would have heppened to an LCD, it'd be toast. Moreover, I want to know how they're going to lock it down so the kiddos don't accidentally throw the Windows folder in the trash. Can you imagine having to reinstall and reconfigure it everytime something happens? The joy of that old 7500 was that it ran OS 8 and I could boot from a CD and recopy known good system folders and such over in about 5 min if necessary (and believe me it will be).
I have always seen kids as the perfect computer recyclers, they don't need a 2.6 GHz P4 to play Reader Rabit, even 500 MHz is overkill for most kids in the target age group. You hand your old computers down to them and buy yourself the new stuff. I see this going the way of the Barbie and Hot Wheels PC's that were on sale ever so breifly a while back. I take that back, I bet most of these will go to the grownups who are Disney freaks and would never consider letting a kid use it since it 's a "collectable"
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity -RAH
Why do I have this mental image of a Disney webproxy that when you surf to porn sites you get tame MickeyMouse stuff instead. Like "hotmale.com" for example, rather then gay porn popups from hell you get Disney(tm) popups from hell.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.