Tablet for Babies: The Vinci

Don’t laugh at this one…there’s a big market for baby tablets. If you don’t believe me, you haven’t flown cross-country on a plane with an 18-month-old like I did last week.

The passengers in the seats next to us would have pooled their money and bought us an iPad if such a transaction were possible on Delta flights.

And from what I’ve seen, tablets for small children make sense. My daughter loves her parents’ smart phones, and we’d rather have her interacting with a touchscreen than passively watching cartoons on TV. We’ll be getting a tablet for her soon, now that she’s old enough to know not to throw it on the floor.

Anyway, CNET has the details on the Vinci: “Introduced at CES and launching in the first half of 2011, the Vinci has a BPA-free silicone handle that fits little hands, a 7-inch screen, a micro SD card slot and USB connectivity, built-in speaker and microphone, as well as a 3-megapixel camera. In order to protect wee ones from radiation, there’s no Wi-Fi.”

The problem with this, of course, is that there’s a big iPhone/iPad developer community that is building games and apps for small children. Android and Win7 devices will have similar offerings soon, assuming those platforms take off. But if the Vinci has a proprietary platform (the article doesn’t specify), a steady stream of new apps to play with isn’t as likely. 

(Photo by CNET)