Amazon's newly unveiled Kindle Fire seeks to create its own space in a tablet market largely defined by the iPad. The new Amazon device is interesting for many reasons, but we think that it may find a huge niche within the kids' market. Here's why:
The price point is a no-brainer. For a third of the iPad's price, you can put a tablet in your kid's hot little hands. Kids don't really need 3G, 4G or a camera, and while 8GB isn't a ton of on-device storage, the Wi-Fi and Cloud-based storage and applications are likely to meet a child's needs. Unlike the iPad, the Kindle Fire supports Adobe Flash Player, the cornerstone of countless kids' sites including Sesame Street, Nick Jr. and Disney. For parents who are trying to balance screen time and book time, we think it's interesting that this device is still first and foremost an e-reader, one that's out of the gate with a catalog of over 1,000 children's books available for purchase.
Ultimately, we want to see if third party developers embrace the Kindle Fire platform to produce a critical mass of quality applications. Until we see the kind of intelligently designed, thoughtful apps that have made the iPad so effective and intuitive for child's play and learning, we won't know the full scope of the device's potential for kids.
(Image: Amazon)
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My toddler is in love with my mother's ipad, to the point that we were even thinking about getting one for the family (we have a new baby on the way and thought a little distraction for baby #1 might be essential a few times a day) but once I found out she can't go to Sesame Street's website I nixed it. So glad to hear we have an even cheaper option!
A $200 Kindle or a $5 book? Tech or tactile?
Sadly, I think this subscribes a bit too much to the "technology has to be good for kids, so let's shovel it at them" mindset that's become a societal norm without even so much as a shred of solid evidence that technology does boost academic achievement or enhance overall quality of life.
We seem hell-bent on turning little children into technologists and voracious digital consumers before they've even had a chance to just be kids - to fingerpaint, play ball, collect a jar of ladybugs, or any of a thousand other childlike activities.
We spend our money on actual books and make an effort to keep our 5 yr old unplugged as long as we can.
Yeah, I'd rather keep my kid hooked up to a machine. I've never even LET her outside! And we're librarians, too! *eye roll*
My 2 year old is obsessed with my iPad. I really limit his time to about a half hour per day so I don't think it's a bad thing for kids to be reading books or playing educational games on an electronic device. We have been thinking about buying him an itouch but at this price you get more for the money. I'm in!
Love nellymom's comments. It's all about balance. Obviously if you innundate children with TOO much technology, it is not a good thing. I agree - the Kindle could be a nice addition to the market as it's affordable and comes loaded with many books which I might add is an environmentally friendly option to buying books.
I vote for unplugged.
Awesome children's books are awesome, whether they're on paper or board or in digital.
Digital storage of books would be especially wonderful for kids who have to travel often, or who live at two homes. Imagine being able to always take your books with you where ever you go!
When I was a little kids I used to drag a stack of my favorite books with me just for the drive to the grocery store. (I was a fast reader, and we lived in a rural area where the grocery was 45 minutes away - I really did need that many children's books!) I would have been overjoyed to be able to bring anything I wanted, not just the small amount of books that fit in my teddy bear backpack.
My 4 year old loves the Nook Color we have and if I didn't have that, I may have considered this.
Like all things, moderation is key.
Regardless of the little ones, I think I want one for myself!
I'm in two minds though on the whole screen time for little people thing. Part of me says, "they grow up too young", The other part says "This is the world we live in, embrace it". Today I choose to embrace. The Kindle fire looks RAD!
There's no way I'd buy an Ipad... but the Kindle? I'm thinking about it - for me. I'm scared of my 3 year old even learning that there's anything on it for her - I don't want to share! Or, risk her breaking it. It's nice to know that it comes with all of the kids books pre-loaded on it, but really, I'm NOT going to be buying an e-reader for my 3 year old when I don't even have one for myself.
I think the real test of "will this product be a good fit for a kid" is to take one of these tablets (that someone else paid for!) and drop if from about 5 feet. No matter how careful your child is, they are still kids and that $200 of glass and delicate machinery WILL get dropped. If its going to shatter the first time, don't waste your money!
My daughter has an iPod touch, and it's just absolutely fabulous for her to read books on. If this was an option before we probably would have gotten that instead, since the screen is so big. My husband and I share a car and sometimes she spends hours in the car, and it's a great way to bring a lot of her books with her.
My 6 yr old is into comic books as well as Angry Birds. We might get one of these eventually since it should be comic-book friendly - the price is great, and the content in general is looking pretty good.
I picked up a used iPad for my toddler to read books and play learning apps on. There are a ton of wonderful interactive books for toddlers (many of which we read together) and apps (many of which we play together). He does use the iPad a lot on his own some days, but if we didn't have it he'd be reading regular books or doing regular puzzles. Because it's an electronic device doesn't mean it's any less of a book, puzzle, or game than a real one. Paper vs. touch screen, does it matter? Books used to be considered newfangled technology, too :)
As someone who grew up with lots of tech devices, I personally love the iPad for my toddler. The interactive books are *so cool* and add immensely to the experience of reading. They don't seem to damper his imagination at all; his favorite paper books are still the old timey Curious George books, with their sparse illustrations, despite using the iPad for over a year.
Stuff like iPad/Kindle are also MUCH MORE ECO-FRIENDLY then destroying trees to make books. This is something I've come to terms with. As much as I adore my bookshelves, we can't as a society keep destroying our trees to fill our shelves. Electronic is the way to go for this type of thing. It's also highly portable, so you can bring your entire library with you anywhere you are.