iPad-crazed toddlers to spur holiday sales

One iPad isn’t enough for Patrick Smith’s family.

Smith, an American web designer living in Germany, has two kids vying for their tablet computer. The youngest started tapping and finger-swiping the screen when aged one, leading to tussles over who gets to play with the Apple Inc device. Now, Smith is considering buying another tablet for Christmas.

“It’s usually a fight to decide whose turn it is,” said Smith, whose sons are now two and five years old.

The family jockeying shows how big the youth market may be for Apple and its tablet competitors, including Amazon.com Inc and makers of Android devices. Among kids ages six to 12, the iPad is the most-wanted holiday gift for the second year in a row, according to Nielsen Co. Even so, the industry faces hurdles. That includes setting a price parents can live with and dealing with concerns about kids getting hooked on technology too early.

About 61 per cent of iPad buyers are parents, estimates BlueKai Inc, which compiles consumer data. The market’s growth isn’t just generating revenue for tablet makers, it’s increasing demand for kid-oriented content. Companies ranging from Walt Disney Co to small start-ups are developing games, interactive books and other software to appeal to children.

“Kids just get it — they touch it and it moves,” said Jamie Pearson, founder of BestKidsApps.com, a review website with almost 300,000 monthly page views, 40 per cent of which are for apps aimed at kids under five. “It’s like any other natural language at that age; they just pick it up.”

According to Forrester Research Inc, 29 per cent of tablet owners regularly share the device with their kids. Among mothers, it’s 65 per cent. One Apple commercial shows a young child learning to write using the iPad 2.

For Apple, the youth market presents opportunities and challenges. While the iPad is the top-selling tablet, many parents may opt for lower-cost models if they know they’re putting these in the hands of children. Amazon’s Kindle Fire is less than half the price of the iPad.

When asked to choose between the $199 Kindle Fire and the $499 iPad, 51 percent of consumers opted for the Amazon product, according to a survey by Parks Associates. Smith said he is considering a Kindle Fire for his family’s second tablet.

“It’s a low enough price point that it forces that couch- potato consumer to get off the couch and buy something like this,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst at Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Forrester. “There’s almost no reason not to.”

‘Digital Pacifier’
Still, tablets have raised concerns among child advocates. As much as kids enjoy playing with an iPad, parents should limit the amount of time they spend plopped down with the device, said Gwenn O’Keeffe, a pediatrician in Boston who has studied the effects of technology on children and works with the American Academy of Pediatrics. Toddlers under two shouldn’t play with an iPad unless it’s only being used to display books, she said.

Victoria Nash, a researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute who also has studied the topic, said some parents use gadgets as a “digital pacifier.”

“We know already there are dangers with watching too much television and doing too much online gaming,” she said.

A new book, Goodnight iPad, a parody of the popular children’s book Goodnight Moon, reminds parents to unplug by poking fun at how much time is spent in front of computer and television screens each day.