Stan Beer
Thursday, 18 June 2009 04:35
Your IT -
Home IT
Page 1 of 2
They might have called it the Disney Funbook, but Disney Netpal is the
name of a collaborative netbook product from Asus and Disney that may
be the first truly serious attempt to provide a commercial grade
computer product for children. The new netbook melds the creative
design capabilities of Disney with the innovative Eee PC package.
Over the past three years, there have been a
number of attempts to capture the child computing market, loosely
defined as the 6-12 year olds. The OLPC organisation tried it with a
netbook born out of the labs of MIT, purportedly designed for kids in
underprivileged regions. Its nemesis Intel tried it with a competing
product called the Classmate.
Neither computing product has been successful in gaining the sort of
widespread appeal among the kids demographic that Nintendo and Apple
have achieved with handheld entertainment devices, such as Gameboy,
Nintendo DS and of course the iPod.
In what may prove to be a game changing marketing move, Asus has
enlisted the help of Disney to develop the sort of computer product
that may finally get kids' attention.
The Disney Netpal, a
Windows XP Home based machine, is described by its makers as a netbook
computer for children that’s fun, web-safe and easy to use.
The interface has been designed by Disney, a company which specialises
in making things visually appealing for children, in stark contrast to
scientists in computer labs at universities and in large technology
corporations.
According to Asus and Disney, the Netpal is developed with parents and
kids in mind, being durable, with a reinforced mechanical design, and
offering "a truly magical and engaging computing experience with a
unique Disney user interface".
CONTINUED Page 2
LATEST HEADLINES FROM YOUR IT
