A recent exchange on a message board I frequent led me to a surprising realization: there is a demand for ebook readers even for very young children, and it might not be a device maker that wins this niche at all. It might be a peripheral maker. Here’s why.
The initial poster was looking for advice on a reading device for her toddler daughter, let’s call her D. D is already an avid reader, enjoys paper books immensely, and also enjoys playing with Beatrix Potter downloads on Mama’s Kindle (she can turn the pages already herself).
Mama never thought she would consider a full-on ebook reader for such a little child, but she had three compelling reasons for doing so now:
1) She felt that the kiddie-marketed things like Leapster were too commercialized (the books are all Disney princess-type marketing tie-ins) and not much cheaper than a proper grown-up one. They also came with add-ons which did not interest her. D was greatly interested, as a concept, in her cousin’s Leapster but could never find anything to actually DO on it that was appropriate for her age level.
2) An adult might bring a book along for the car ride, but a young child has both shorter books to choose from, and a shorter attention span to match. Mama had resorted to borrowing the store’s own for-sale books during shopping trips, and putting them back just before entering the checkout line, because she could not handle carrying around sixteen paper books in addition to carrying around the child.
3) They live far from a library, so Mama is thinking that if she springs for a real device as opposed to a kiddie toy, D can use it as she gets older to download books from home. For this reason too, Mama was interested in making sure she had access to the widest possible content pool, and a pre-fab selection of princess books would not do the job.
THE CONSENSUS: ALL HAIL THE iPOD TOUCH
To my surprise, I found more parents than I thought replying to her that they did use ebook devices with their very little kids, for just these reasons. I always thought I would never use a reader with someone who wasn’t at least at the chapter book phase, so I was interested that so many parents were going full-speed ahead with ebooking preschoolers.
And most of them had devices available because, in that eternal Circle of Electronic Life, they found themselves upgrading their own toys and passing on the hand-me-downs to other family members. At least three people confessed they had older iPod Touches that had pretty much become exclusively the kid’s domain. They found they were perfect readers because the older kids could read real books, and the younger ones could play with animated ones. And all of them appreciated that for long trips, the huge array of low-cost games, educational apps and movies would keep the kids well entertained for the duration.
THE ONE PROBLEM: DURABILITY
They all felt that the kids had no trouble using the iPod Touch. They did not need a special kids device at all and once everything was set up for them, they both enjoyed and could easily manipulate the iPod Touch. The only issue was its fragility. Several sung the Touch’s praises, while admitting it was hardly something to just throw in the toybox. Another said that her toddler had not outgrown the tantrum stage and likes to throw things, so she cannot use it without an adult holding onto it for her.
So, if it seems we don’t need a special new device for kids, it does seem like at very least, we need a new case for them. The first person who builds a kid-friendly iPod Touch case that you CAN just ‘throw in the toybox’ is going to win the ebook war for little kids.
Someone at Apple needs to wake up and create a drop-proof, waterproof, and peanut-butter-finger proof version of the iPod touch made just for kids.