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Comment by tomsaffell | Hacker News Reader

Why an iPhone? I see this as most useful for an absent parent (e.g. on a business trip / separated). What then is the chance of their being an unused iPhone in the house?

Why not a standard PC built into a teddy-bear, simplified and locked down for just this application? Sell it as a $500 dedicated device to the business (wo)man who's away from their kids on a business trip.

[EDIT] p.s. - wouldn't the iPhone screen make the text too small for the child to read along with the parent? Is reading along an important part of the experience?

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Think a little longer term. The iPod touch has a great chance to displace the Gameboy as the portable gameplayer of choice. You get way more processing power per dollar (and not much more expensive), a massive catalog of games, and services like this demonstrate other uses nicely. I would do the iPod touch version stat!

It's not a matter of 'longer term', it's a matter of suitability of the HW for the task at hand. The iPod touch / iPhone has small screen, which would not allow the book to be displayed in full glory along side the video, so no reading along for the child :(. Plus it doesn't support Flash, it would need to be a native app, hence taxable by Apple.

I'm not saying iPhone wont work at all, I'm saying there's probably an additional opportunity (maybe better) for a bigger device, designed specifically for the task, and sold at a healthy margin (people who go on lots of business trips normally have above average income).

iTeddy (Was on dragons den UK)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kwjYSn03-M

Original pitch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhMNipYqY5Y

Deployment on the iTeddy would be amazing as an option when paying. That thing has serious traction. OP should definitely test the water there.

Chumby seems like the obvious candidate.

Maybe when the apple tablet comes out? :)

Don't get too hung up on bleeding edge tech, there is money in $ALREADY_EXISTING tech.

Put all your focus on marketing now.

Teddy Ruxspin (sp?) ?

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