The Tech Opportunity in Toys

Judy Shackelford, who has been in the toy industry for more than 40 years, has seen a lot of dolls. But none, she says, like her latest creation, a marvel of digital technologies, including speech-recognition and memory chips, radio frequency tags and scanners, and facial robotics. She and her team have christened it Amazing Amanda.

Ms. Shackelford has been testing limits since she joined Mattel in 1976 as manager of preschool marketing. Three years later she became the highest-ranking woman in the American toy industry when she was named a Mattel vice president, the first woman to reach that rank. Credited with reviving the Barbie line of dolls and toys in the late 1970’s, she left Mattel in 1986 to establish her own company. (NY Times)

She then turned to the doll seated on her lap. “Hi, honey,” Ms. Shackelford said gently to Amazing Amanda, a blond, blue-eyed figure bearing more than a remote likeness to its creator. “Hello, my name is Amanda,” the doll replied as Ms. Shackelford smiled warmly at its rosy face. “We’re going to have the best time together,” the doll promised.

At that price, the same as Apple’s entry-level iPod Shuffle digital music player, the 18-inch-tall doll promises – right on the box it will be sold in – to “listen, speak and show emotion.” Radio frequency tags in Amanda’s accessories – including toy food, potty and clothing – wirelessly inform the doll of what it is interacting with. For instance, if the doll asks for a spoon of peas and it is given its plastic cookie, it will gently admonish its caregiver, telling her that a cookie is not peas.

The $20 billion toy industry has faltered in recent years as children’s tastes and styles of play have changed. Toy spending has been widely seen as migrating to consumer electronics. Children are increasingly craving devices their parents want, many analysts say, like cellphones, digital cameras and portable digital music players, iPod being the best example of a beneficiary of this shift.

Isn’t there an opportunity for technology innovators amidst this transition?