iPads eh? Over lunch my colleague at work said "I was thinking of getting an iPad mini for my 3 yr old daughter". WHAT?!?! Just proves my point: consumers are stupid and have more money than sense. He'd spend £270 on something that his kid can do on a £50 Android tablet...just because it's an iPad.
Seriously, consumers are stupid!
Nothing new. I took the following picture a few months ago.
That's a 3 year old in the background. I was visiting her family and thought I'd gather up all the tablets to take a picture. You don't see something like this everyday.
Wife, my sister, bought her husband an asus transformer infinity last year. These things cost about $650 each set (tablet and detachable keyboard dock) back then. The following day, he went out and bought one just like it for her. Their 3 boys started borrowing them to play games and such. The boys were ages 3, 6, and 8. So, my sister and her husband thought why not just get each one of them their own transformer infinity. So, they went out and got each one their own transformer. At $650 each set, my jaw dropped when I heard about it.
They actually had a good reason to do this. See, other parents get their kids wii, ps3, and whatever other gaming systems for their kids. My sister and her husband thought why not get each one of them something that is both educational and entertaining? I honestly thought they'd be addicted to gaming on those things. But the first time I visited them, I was dumbstruck to see the 8 year old doing homework on his tablet/laptop hybrid. I was even more amazed at how well the 3 year old handled the system.
The 6 and 8 (now 9) year olds play a lot of baseball tournaments. You can tell they are very athletic. So, I haven't seen any sign of addiction. So, that's always a good thing. I'm just amazed how well they've handled their very expensive machines.
Anyway, the point is if you are careful you can make these tablets a positive influence in your kids' lives. The 9 year old does karate and baseball. The 3 year old loves to play those brain puzzle games on his tablet. The 7 year old does homework and plays games with his tablet. All is good.
Edit.
By the way, the hybrid 2nd from the left (the one with the square angry face) belongs to the 3 year old in the background.