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.