Hot or not? An article in the NYT today about the toy-fication of a gadget, a “pen-top computer,” that didn’t catch on in the adult market, has me wondering something: How could such a goofy product catch on among reputed tech-savvy 8-14 year olds who’ve had computers and digital cameras and cell-phones since birth – and iPods half their lives. Shouldn’t they recognize a dead-end technology when they see it? Or, are they recognizing something about this technology that I’m missing?
Ask someone in that age group, “Would you rather have a pen-top computer or a $100 iTunes gift card” and see what technology wins. (Granted, they’d rather have something wrapped up in a box under a tree.)
I would ask my in-house focus group of that demographic. Unfortunately, while I wasn’t looking, they grew out of the demographic. (No, I didn’t shoot them.)
P.S. This is the kind of whining I’m going to quit doing in 2006.
