Alan at BIYF went to CES, and all he got was a--well, actually, it's a pretty bleak post about kid-related electronics gear. Sure, there's a TV lockbox [see how long that works], but despite gains in the furniture, toys, and clothes fronts, the modern design-minded parent is facing new fronts in the battle against mega-licensed-character-driven schlock. Computer mice, eh. It's the cartoon plastic-wrapped LCD TV's for the nursery [?] that scare me.
According to that recent Kaiser study, 26% of children under two have TV's in their rooms. To me, that's about 25% too many; meanwhile, to flatscreen manufacturers, that's a 74% market growth opportunity.
Bleak, yes. But keep in mind I spent most of my time ogling big boy toys for Daddy (and wishing I had folded that one hand after the turn, when I knew the other guy tripped his nines, and that my Aces were no long good - AND wishing I'd actually used my passes to the Adult Entertainment Expo), so I really only saw a few kids items.
While I thought that the Hannspree's ranked, it was more from a kid's perspective than anything else. Daddy may like the modern aesthetic when it comes to a hi-def rig, but I'm pretty certain the kids will take the 60" Spongebog. Anyway, the quality of the LCD screens themselves was pretty crappy (especially for the price), so they weren't ALL that.
And believe it or not, my kid will never own one. Daddy may love his boob-tube (I'm probably a prime candidate for the lockbox), but he and Mommy are firm believers in the less is more philosophy when it comes to kids and TV. We both grew up without them in our rooms, we don't see any reason to change things up for our spawn (that goes for phones and computers too).
Anyway, did you see the 103" Plasma?!?!
[hope i was shooting the screen, not the messenger... and not the 103" screen...day-um. -ed.]