Missed Opportunity: Why iPad Kids May Hop Onto the LeapFrog's LeapPad Tablet

Technology Damon Brown 29/06/2011

The childrens'-tech company LeapFrog announced the LeapPad tablet, a move that, on first blush, sounds like a suicide mission. Apple (APPL) has sold about 25 million iPads, sewing up 71 percent of the market. However, Apple hasn't catered to parents and their kids as much as it could have. The LeapPad may actually have a shot.

Here are the specs:

  • Aimed at kids 4 and up
  • Durable design
  • 5-inch touchscreen with optional stylus
  • Built-in mic, camera, and video recorder
  • 2 GB of memory
  • More than 100 games and apps
  • Adjustable difficulty levels on all games
  • $99 on August 1
The 100-plus apps may pale compared to the thousands offered on the iPad, but LeapFrog has the opportunity to truly curate what experiences their little users will have on the LeapPad.

Price, durability, and controls
The LeapPad gives parents three things the iPad lacks:

  • Low price
  • High durability
  • Parental controls
iPads have had a consistent $499 starting point: Cheap for a tablet, but expensive for a kid's toy. Assuming Apple made the devices as cheap as possible, there's no way that it could offer a $99 or even a $199 iPad. We now have $49 iPhones, but the iPhone has been out for four years and the components are now cheap enough to drop the price.

Second, the iPad still seems too fragile of a device for the average parent to let their child go completely wild with it. At the very least, a parent wouldn't buy an iPad exclusively for his or her child. The LeapTab is something the kid can own -- to chew on, spill on, and toss around like a frisbee.

But the biggest gift the LeapPad will give parents is control. Apple has no problem censoring content, but its filter is strange: Victoria's Secret and Playboy apps are OK, but male swimsuit apps are not. And if a parent has a problem with an adult-oriented app, there is no way to block the child from downloading it. Earlier this year Apple added a small pop-up that warns people the app is for people 18 and up. That's it. If anything, a warning would make a kid more likely to download it.

There's also no way to protect a parent's wallet. In February, a mother got a four-figure phone bill after her daughter bought $1,400 in virtual in-app Smurfberries. The Smurfs' Villiage game has no parental controls or warnings, like every other app on Apple iOS.

Will the LeapPad take down the iPad? Definitely not. However, the LeapFrog company does have the opportunity to get a piece of Apple's billion-dollar market share, which is enough to justify its tablet venture.

Photo courtesy of geopungo // CC 2.0
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