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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."

3 of 341 comments (clear)

  1. DOA by Ars-Fartsica · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:DOA by Ayaress · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not only that, kids raised with computers can handle a considerably higher level of input than those just a couple generations ago, and can master at least basic GUI functions very quickly. It took me all of fifteen minutes to get my five year old niece to the point where she could connect, check her own email, and handle a web browser with minimal help the very first time she sat down at a computer. Her father took a week just to get him to turn it on without recoiling from the slight clicking sound the harddrive makes spinning up. Provided the parents aren't clueless about computers and the internet (both guarding against the risks and reaping the almost infinite rewards), the kids don't NEED a crippled computer to get started. They should target the crippled computers at clueless parents and have the kids teach them how to use them.

      The commercials with the two year old pounding on the keyboard with a toy mallet and fixing a problem that had both his parents stymied are exaggerated, but not as absurdly so as they my look.

  2. Aha! by The-Bus · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Reminds me of the Disney electronics:



    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.