2012 is the Year of the App-cessory.
It didn't take long, but it looks like the mobile device is no longer enough. Whether it's toy figures, board games or the balls of the future, we are seeing an explosion of accessories that will interact and engage with our mobile devices and consoles. This year we are set to see more and more items that want to talk to your children's mobile devices.
We live in accelerated times. While this may cause many adults different levels of discomfort and anxiety, children are growing up in a world where the rate of change is what they have always known. You could say that children, even if they are unaware, have the expectation that the rate of app development will continue to accelerate – especially given that the market for mobile devices is heading quickly towards a critical mass.
It is this critical mass that has given rise to the "app-cessory": a digitally enabled item that is controlled by, or interacts with, your mobile device. We have seen them emerging for adult markets with items like Bluetooth headsets and Bluetooth laser keyboards. But the children's market will take them to the next step. And why not? If children's expectations will be for more options and more development to increase interactivity and engagement, then it is they who will lead the development of the internet of things more than anyone.
The initial thrust is coming in the form of toys. We are seeing a remake of the toy cars and plastic figurines that children can play with in the playground and on the bedroom floor. Now, these toys can also interact with their screens. It may have been AppMates's development of the Cars 2 toys and apps in the middle of 2011 when app-cessories for kids first made their mark, but it has been Activision with its Skylanders concept that is making serious money. Skylanders became the hit of Christmas 2011 with the 30-odd action figures that interact with a "portal of power," which wirelessly identifies the characters and places them into the game. These figures can be played with by children in their own imaginary worlds on their bedroom floor (my son has already built his Bash figure a home made from cardboard and styrofoam). But by placing them on the app-cessory portal, the characters will appear in the game with the same levels and characteristics that they had from previous games. The characters can even be taken to friends' houses and carry over their skills and attributes to a friend's Skylanders game, even on a different console.
WowWee is also entering the market with its AppGear Toys. They look like serious contenders that could do for iPhones and iPads what Skylanders has done for gaming consoles. WowWee has a range of collectible toys that will seamlessly interact and become part of games on your mobile device. Each toy, like planes and zombies and aliens, comes with its own app. The figures, like Skylanders, are themselves good quality and representative of our expectations of the figurines with which children play and with which adults adorn their computers and desks. Sesame Street is also partnering with developers to create toys that come to life on screen. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, a couple of prototypes used an augmented reality platform that, for adults, may blur the lines between play with toys and play in the digital realm. For children, it will increasingly become about the way they play, where real and augmented worlds of play collide.
There are others who are looking at different types of accessories that go beyond toys and figurines.
In the board game space we have Lego's Life of George, where most of the game exists as a free downloadable app and in the board game box is a simple flat board and Lego bricks. The game requires you to build items displayed on the screen against a timer on the app. You demonstrate you've finished the build correctly by scanning the Lego creation with the camera on your mobile device. Alternatively, the GameChanger board game accessory for iPad uses the iPad as an extension of the playing board and allows for the whole game to be managed and coordinated from the digital screen. This interacts with touch pads on the accessory, and different skins can be put over the board allowing for many different board game possibilities. I have seen both of these games capture the attention and interest of adults and children alike. They bring devices we are becoming so familiar with into the activities and pastimes that we love to play.
In the early childhood space, people are developing soft toys and developmental toys that contain and protect your iPhone or Android Phone, but digitally enhance the experience. These may not have the same value for childhood development as the app-cessories for older children, but they point to the broader movement away from just the screen and towards an experience that incorporates the screen, but exists in the external world with toys like HappiTaps and Fisher Price's Laugh and Learn Apptivity Case.
Then of course, the world spills over into the broader internet of things. This is where the remote control ball controlled by your mobile device called Sphero lives. It is where accessories without a mobile app are born, like Sifteo.
What This Means for Child Development
The rise of the app-cessory demonstrates that we are not satisfied with screens.
When it comes to children especially, we want them to learn and engage with both the real and the virtual worlds. We want them to take what they know into the digital space, and bring the digital space back out into the garden or the classroom. The app-cessories I have mentioned do that in different ways and with different levels of success. While they certainly add a price to our mobile devices, they also enhance and add value to what our iPads and Android phones already do. Our children are spending increasing amounts of time with mobile devices, so investing more in quality tools to help extend the educational and entertainment capacity of these devices seems appropriate.
We are becoming aware that despite the amazing amount of content, information and possibilities of the screen as a portal to the internet, this is not enough to support our children and young people to become capable and engaged. It is a huge part of the world they are going to inherit, but they have to know how that world interacts and engages with the world outside the screen. App-cessories are the first small step towards helping children and young people to begin to think and engage with those ideas.
There are three areas which I think are useful in terms of how app-cessories can and will be used that are beneficial to children in an educational sense. I will further elaborate on these in a future post. It is the way several progressive teachers and parents are already trying to use mobile devices. The app-cessories provide further leverage and make it easier. Those three areas are:
- Collaboration and Engagement: App-cessories can improve the capacity for children to work and play together on mobile devices.
- Extension Beyond Screens: App-cessories take children's play and learning beyond the screen by integrating and providing space for both real and virtual worlds.
- Enhance 21st-Century Skills: App-cessories provide further enhancement for mobile devices to explore 21st-century skills, particularly creativity, collaboration and critical thinking.
I'm looking forward to sharing my thoughts on these at GeekDad soon.
