The war between Apple iOS devices and traditional gaming machines is heating up! According to ModMyI, Toys ‘R Us will start selling the Apple iPad 2 in May. The site received a view images from an employee training sessions and they’re all about familiarizing Toys ‘R Us reps with Apple’s latest tablet. Here’s more:
We received a tip this morning from a Toys R’ Us employee that the venerable children’s toy store will begin selling the iPad 2 next month. Although there have been rumors in the past about Toys R’ Us possibly carrying the iPad at some point in the future, this is the first we’ve heard from an actual employee that an iPad launch at the toy store is imminent.
And there’s photographic evidence to back up the claim. Obtained during an employee training session, the pic clearly illustrates the iPad 2 presented in some form of employee training and testing process — something that would naturally take place shortly before a new product launch.
While it’s easy to find iOS devices and gaming machines at Best Buy, Target, and other broad retail outlets, videogames have ruled the roost at Toys ‘R Us. Do you think Toys ‘R Us is a good fit for the iPad 2? Should Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony be worried?
ray, ive never used one of these things….are they really that awesome?
Which "thing" in particular. The iPad 2? If so, it's a fantastic entertainment device (movies, music, games, Internet) and more productive than I thought it would be (Pages is a great word processor and the WordPress tools work well).
Sony, Nintendo, and (to a lesser extent) Microsoft should be wary of this. Of course, we all know Nintendo won't plan on doing anything about it, as they don't see Apple as a threat. Sony will fight back with their own smartphone, but I doubt it'll sell very well. Microsoft doesn't really have anything to worry about from this, since their biggest systems are consoles; not many people know about Microsoft handhelds, anyway.
I'd say the biggest threat is that Apple is clearly showing desire in targeting the younger consumers, and most kids don't care about specs. They just want a fun game, and if the iPad 2 provides, parents will buy it.
Nintendo definitely sees Apple as a threat. A large part of Iwata's GDC keynote was talking down on mobile games.
Oh, yeah. I meant Sony.
This shouldn't really be a surprise to anyone, Toys R Us is one of the only retailers who is an authorized Apple retail store. They have sold Apple products for a while, and when I worked there everyone was always asking for an iPad so it only makes sense that they start selling the iPad 2.
@Lunias
That's too short term. MS most def will be competing with their Tablets and WP7. Unfortunately they will be far behind.
@Smartguy
MS will have their own handhelds, but will anybody know about them? I don't watch TV much, but I haven't heard about any of their smartphones or tablets on the internet, only rumors. And I search the web a lot. Will the casual consumer know about the system? Or will it be virtually unnoticed?
@Lunias
Depends on how much cash they use to get it out there. WP7 currently has Live integration. I'd assume that their ARM OS (Win8?) will integrate even more as to offer specific or cross platform play.
The avg consumer will not know unless they are told. The MS future as far as portables go will be interesting. They def won't release a dedicated device solely for games.
@Smartguy
Yeah, the only portable device I saw running any Xbox game was some "handheld" that looked more like a keyboard-less computer running Halo, and that's not even confirmed. It's just a rumor right now, but I don't know if it would be worth it or not…
To add to smartguy's comment, Microsoft is going large with Windows Phone. I'm not sure how successful it will be, but it's being backed by TONS of marketing dollars. Windows 7 tablets will hit this year too. The phones and tablets will have their own Xbox Live games and Zune integration.
You know, I was just attempting to look up what's so great about the Windows Phone series, when I saw something that caught my eye. Here's the link:
http://www.switched.com/2011/04/09/students-creat…
What was your reaction?
I'm going to seriously look into a WP7 Nokia device next year. Nokia hardware is amazing.