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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."
Frogdesign is awesome. They've done projects for Disney before (including the Disney Cruise ship) not to mention their work in Windows XP, a longstanding relationship with Apple, Ford, Motorola... the list goes on and on.
That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
for Kiosks in Disney stores, Disney Land/World etc, maybe daycare centres. I expect that Disney would be bundling a suite of Disney related software titles etc. This is most definately targeting the 2-6 year old range. It may actually take off, its amazing how many people I know whos young childrens bedrooms have a Disney theme... adding a Disney PC would be the icing on the cake.
It comes bundled with ContentWatch's Internet filtering tools and multimedia children's software called Disney Flix, Pix and Mix.
/.), but content-watch is a bad program.
I believe their biggest mistake here is using Content Watch. My wonderful mother had that lousy filter installed on our computer when I was just a young-in and it is the buggiest thing I have ever seen. It crashes the computer, takes up the resources, and DOESN'T work. It blocks programs from running that are perfectly fine programs (like VTI from ticalc.org). (and one of the bugs present here is that if you leave the "this program uses a bad word 'sex'" window on and open the program again, it doesn't catch it).
Anyway, I don't mind filtering the internet for children (i know i'll get flamed by the 'yro' crowd here at
I'll tell you why this will flop, and it's not just some "I think disney sucks" diatribe.
In the computer industry, you either have to have a superior design and high profit margins, or deal in large volume. Niche markets for low volume in the computer world don't work. Also, tie in's between computers and other products have always flopped. Look at the barbie computer and matchbox computer. Last a couple months.
Parents buy computers, not kids. Some kids will be able to get their parents to buy this stuff, but its a very small niche, and there's no margin to justify the industrial design costs for things like this. You just won't get the volume of purchases. People like well designed computers, but they look at it more like an appliance.
Apple can get away with high cost industrial design because of their niche, and their niche has nothing to do with appealing to kids. Back in the day they targeted education in order to get kids to grow up on macs, but it had nothing to do with how the macs looked.
I also noticed this line in the end of the article:
"There may not be anything technologically new about any of the gadgets, but it's easy to imagine them inspiring toy lust. "
If that's not corporate pandering I don't know what is. This computer will not make anyone gadget envious, and either the author is an idiot for thinking that or he's kissing up to the corporate parents. I mean c'mon, people don't have printer envy these days, and joysticks and digital cameras are common place.
Finally, I'd just like to say that the spin of the poster makes it seem like disney is actually into the computer business to compete with Dell. This is just a brand tie in, and is nothing new.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
Of course being a Disney computer, my first response is - so what's the DRM on it like and how badly is it locked down eg. are you actually *allowed* to do anything on it besides Disney (TM) approved actions? I just keep on thinking of another big megacorp who tries to do hardware and is part of big media *cough*Sony*cough*. They make good hardware that is badly crippled with DRM and anything else their media side wants to put in - and I don't mean crippled as in the Slashdot version "Anything with DRM is bad" but crippled as in it is actually a pain for normal people to use and people keep on mentioning it in reviews "Well this is a great piece of hardware but..." I can just imagine that Disney's dream of a perfect Disney computer is one where you have to ring Disney for permission everytime you want to do something not specifically Disney (TM) approved eg. installing software not on the Disney (TM) approved list.
I haven't RTFA'd yet, but I'm wondering if this has wireless?
That has been the most important aspect of my daughter's (5 yo) acceptance of the machine. No matter where you 'think' they want the PC, they always want to drag it somewhere else. With 802.11b, I was able to build it into a self contained unit where it could be moved anywhere she wanted. (Well anywhere there was a power cord). Now she has one of my old laptops, and can even go sans power cord.
(what does a 5 y.o. need with 'net access? Well besides the normal kids flash sites, it's amazing what you can do on a homepage. She left her ever-present stuffed lamb toy at a hotel once, and some photoshopped googling showed that lamby was 'on vacation' with all sorts of pictures from the road)
I also find this makes the machine become more than just a glorified PC with a mouse. When you put it in the kid's little world it becomes a tool for 'normal' play activities instead of another ADD training excercise. She plays Barbie.com with friends (real and stuffed) and integrates the happenings of Disney games on screen with the physical toy world around her.
When the machine is locked down at a desk, it's amazing how it becomes the sit-straight-mouse-in-hand-1000-yard-stare effect.
Of course this is anecdotal, but I bet there's some universal truth to it. So I'm interested to see if this machine is intended to be an enhancement of the kids normal playworld, or just another implementation of what's been done before.
I thought it was amusing when the substitute host on the Cavuto show on CNBC asked the company president if the computer would block references to Disney's Gay Days at the park. Hummina hummina hummina.
I think it will be a bad flop (yeah, children hate things made for children),but anyway it's a diseducative move.
Children have to learn computing on real computers. Real computers are NOT difficult for children (expecially now),and there was a /. story about 3-y.o. people using Linux ;)
Anyway,I remember I learned computers when I was 5, on my dad's VIC-20. I remember I was amazed I could tell that machine what to do!. I just typed :
10 PRINT "HELLO"
20 GOTO 10
and I stared looking that machine that did what I asked it...Ok,I asked something stupid,but I felt powerful! And I had just learned what a loop is...
Later (when I was 6-7) I learned to POKE around...and,guys,there were *worlds* in the memory of that machine! I remember I thought I would have "decrypted" the odd character noise that happened with some POKE command...
The fact is with that computer I learned how to program and how computers were made, seamlessly, and having fun. Because it was a real machine, and because I had to program to make it work. I felt powerful.
Therefore, wanna build a children-oriented computer? Just do it :
;) )
-Install Linux (Mandrake -or any other well-done KDE/Gnome desktop will work)(oh,I know this advice is pure mod-gold
-Install all xmms/mplayer codecs etc.
-DON'T install all games you can think of : tell him/her how to find and install them!
-Give your child a good Python tutorial and tell him/her "Can't you find that game?You can do YOUR GAME.Now."
-- Patent no.123456: A way to personalize