Summary
Mattel and Nokia are going out on a new limb with the new Barbie cell phone, which they intend to market to pre-teen girls. These cell phones will be offered with prepaid minutes that parents can use as motivation to perform chores and it will come with 9 wallpapers, 3 unique ringtones and 3 stick on faceplates that can be accessorized. Mattel and Nokia are banking on pre-teen girls who wish to act like older girls with their cell phones.
Original source:
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/feb2005/nf20050218_4219_db016.htm
Details
It's amazing she doesn't already have one, but Barbie is finally getting a cell phone.
Mattel (MAT), the world's largest toymaker and the company that made Barbie famous, will soon start selling cell phones alongside the Barbie My Scene toy line.
Barbie My Scene features a series of dolls with a greater air of modernity than the original Barbie -- they tend to wear hip clothes and brandish a personal digital assistant rather than a frying pan.
Mattel expects them to appeal to 8- to 14-year-old girls and will offer them in all stores that carry Barbies, company executives told BusinessWeek Online.
The phones are the first prepaid -- meaning the user prepays for calls -- cell phones targeting the "tween" girl market.
It also marks an escalation of Mattel's efforts to make its Barbie doll, which saw sales slip 8% last year, hip once again.
Mattel and software and content partner Single Touch Interactive are jointly marketing and distributing the phone.
It allows girls to interact with the brand."
It's just the latest digital entertainment move by Mattel.
On Feb. 17, at the American International Toy Fair in New York City, it unveiled a slew of gadgets, including a handheld entertainment system that allows kids to create their own minimovies out of video clips.
"This particular age group has yet to be addressed in a structured program anywhere in the U.S.," says Richard Siber, CEO of the wireless consulting firm SiberConsulting.
In recent years, several wireless-service providers like Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile have successfully sold prepaid cell service to 18- to 30-year-olds.
When parents activate the new phone, they can go to a Web site, MySceneMobile.com, and list chores they want their children to perform to earn extra minutes.
About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health author and award-winning journalist with a mission to teach personal and planetary health to the public He has authored more than 1,800 articles and dozens of reports, guides and interviews on natural health topics, and he is well known as the creator of popular downloadable preparedness programs on financial collapse, emergency food storage, wilderness survival and home defense skills. Adams is a trusted, independent journalist who receives no money or promotional fees whatsoever to write about other companies' products. In 2010, Adams co-founded NaturalNews.com, a natural health video sharing site that has now grown in popularity. He's also the founder and CEO of a well known email mail merge software developer whose software, 'Email Marketing Director,' currently runs the NaturalNews email subscriptions. Adams also serves as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a non-profit consumer protection group, and regularly pursues cycling, nature photography, Capoeira and Pilates. He's also author of numerous health books published by Truth Publishing and is the creator of several consumer-oriented grassroots campaigns, including the Spam. Don't Buy It! campaign, and the free downloadable Honest Food Guide. He also created the free reference sites HerbReference.com and HealingFoodReference.com. Adams believes in free speech, free access to nutritional supplements and the ending of corporate control over medicines, genes and seeds. Known as the 'Health Ranger,' Adams' personal health statistics and mission statements are located at www.HealthRanger.org
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Sunday, February 27, 2005
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