All parents who own an iPad know this: Their kids want to play with the iPad as much as they do, and that means they have to share.
LeapFrog’s tablet will take the name of its most successful product — and the most successful educational toy ever made — the LeapPad.Now LeapFrog, the educational toy maker, may provide some relief. The company on Tuesday unveiled a $100 tablet computer that is designed specifically for children. The new tablet will take the name of LeapFrog’s most successful product — and the most successful educational toy ever made — the LeapPad. Unlike the original LeapPad, a laptop-sized plastic console that turned paper books into talking books, the new version delivers plenty of smarts in a compact package. The LeapPad has a 5-inch touch screen that is encased in tough plastic, and it includes a still and video camera, a microphone and 2GB of memory.
But what distinguishes the LeapPad the most from other tablets on the market are its software and educational games. The device runs a bit like a spruced-up version of LeapFrog’s successful Leapster Explorer handheld gaming device and runs the games that come in Explorer’s cartridges. It will also work as a children’s ebook reader and play videos, and it comes with apps that allow children to create their own stories and personalize them with photos of themselves and their friends. LeapFrog vows to add more content and apps over time.
The LeapPad is aimed at children between 4 and 9 years old and at this point does not allow third-party developers to create apps for it.
LeapFrog has a long history of building creative products that have been embraced by children and educators alike. But after sales of the original LeapPad, first introduced in 1999, began to decline, the company never regained its financial footing. It began to bleed red ink, suffered through multiple rounds of layoffs and cycled through a number of chief executives.
“We lost direction for a few years,” said John Barbour, a veteran of the toy industry who came out of retirement to become LeapFrog’s chief executive in March. “We are coming back. We are going to be the leader in this space.”
Mr. Barbour said that with the new LeapPad, which will be available in August, the company was going back to its roots. “The essence of what we do is develop children’s entertainment that has proven curricula built into it and makes learning fun,” he said. He said the new LeapPad will deliver that in spades.
Whether children will find the LeapPad more appealing than their parent’s iPads remains to be seen.