Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

Found this trending on Yahoo News and thought it was amusing...

Link:

http://news.yahoo.com/mattel-hasbro-sai ... 12405.html

Article:

Mattel and Hasbro said to be ‘terrified’ as more kids seek high-tech Christmas gifts

By Brad Reed | BGR News – Mon, Dec 24,

Back in the old days, American kids only wanted a Barbie doll or a G.I. Joe action figure for Christmas and all was right with the world. But times have changed, and today American children are looking to get more high-tech Christmas gift such as tablets, the Financial Times reports. In fact, today’s children are so interested in tablets and smartphones that major toy manufacturers Hasbro and Mattel are said to be worried sick about their futures.

“The top two guys, Mattel and Hasbro, they are terrified,” Sean McGowan, managing director of equity research at Needham & Company, told the Financial Times. “They should be terrified, but the official party line is they’re not terrified.”

These anxieties are compounded by the fact that Mattel’s top-selling product this year isn’t any kind of traditional toy, but a plastic cellphone case. And as the Financial Times notes, tablets aren’t just something that children use every now and then out of boredom, since “the amount of time children are spending with technology devices has skyrocketed” because they can “watch free content online and play free video games for hours on end.”


This article was originally published by BGR

Acording to BGR.com Hasbro and Mattel are worried about the future of their toys due to tablets such as Ipads.
http://bgr.com/2012/12/24/tablets-most- ... ft-266062/

I dunno, but I highly doubt that these two are as terrified as the analyst makes them out to be. The main reason is cost.

Toys are cheap, high tech stuff is not.
Toys are easily replacible, high tech stuff is not.
Toys are plentiful and come in many shapes and sizes, high tech stuff is more limited (for now)

Kids'attention spans are too short for them to stay interested in any one thing for too long. Sure they may have their Wii Us and stuff, but I'm betting they put it down and pick up a Nerf gun or a hot wheels car when they get tired of it.

However, as soon as replicators become the latest in high tech stuff, that's when Hasbro and Mattel will deficate in their collective pantaloons.

Topics moved and merged

I dont think it's 100% truthful, but I do believe I-Pads are really a threat to conventional toys. With kids its monkey see monkey do. One parent buys there kid an I-Pad and there friends start begging their parents to get them one.

I'd never give a kid an iPad or a smartphone. Kids should be playing with toys and video games. I don't need them getting on the internet and making it a miserable place for everyone else.