CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT - SERVED!
Last week security researcher Matt Jakubowski found that it was relatively easy to purloin wireless network names, account IDs, and MP3 files from the toy. Now an examination by a different team has found that both the mobile app controlling the doll and the server-side systems used by the plastic playthings also have serious issues.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/12/04/wireless_barbie_slipshod_security/
The app has issues no doubt but Mattel made the hardware. We probably cost reduced the antenna to the cheap one. Hahaha
Fortune.com posted an article on Dec. 8 essentially saying this is a toy NOT to buy.
Sigh. Why is this even a surprise? All the dumbasses that like to throw the word "phygital" around is your first clue that they don't know what they're doing. For a new idea to be good you can't just cobble shit together and call it innovative. You might actually have to create something new Barbie. Yeah you can blame those people in that group if you like. They're just the poor losers who were tasked to create something out of nothing. And then toy talk came along and everyone got a hard on. Then to inevitable decisions by committee took over and it was all down hill.
Ah wait throw in the "you gotta have it for toy show" from good ole Rich and it's all a perfect storm. It's so classic Mattel!
@ENhzG9R-6sxs get's my vote for the "no shit sherlock" award. You must be upper management @ENhzG9R-6sxs
Hey @ENhzG9R-2qxq you really dislike Cynthia, don't you? How pathetic of you to trash a person anonymously.
Zero basis in reality? Let's go through the facts: Hello Barbie is tanking. You can look up its sales rank and reviews on Amazon - all public information, easily available. Cynthia N, Peter M, and Liz G are all real people that worked in Digital at Mattel; only Liz G is left in the NAD inexplicably. Cynthia was moved out of Games after she turned a well functioning group into a divisive team that hated each other - only to land in charge of Digital. Actually, forgot that Chuck S. was in charge after her - best to have another person who knows nothing about digital in charge of that division. As for the stuff about D Voss and his team, can't comment. They weren't involved in Hello Barbie or Apptivity, so not sure what the other poster is commenting on.
The reality is that AI Barbie is flopping big time.
I find it funny that this thread has a near zero basis in reality.
I find it funny how all of the morons in content were sooooo boastful in the design center about their achievements with this hunk of whore crap like conquering heroes that just saved the company and the sun set in ES just for them. All that work, all those secretive meetings like they were a think tank that took the weight of the world on their shoulders and would rescue our failing company from obsolescence. Tools.
Wow, really big surprise that AI Barbie isn't doing well, not. You must mean Craptivity which is what I called it as it was so stupid. I remember D Voss & all his minions sitting around a table bragging quite loudly how they were going to generate hundreds of millions of dollars with Craptivity. All of a sudden everyone in the AKC was walking around with free iPads from Mattel & man did they walk around the Design Center like they just owned the place. Look at me, I got an iPad for free. I just laughed to myself knowing that Craptivity was going straight into the toilet as Disney had already released something similar and ours was just a crap, non functioning, no fun wanna be. All those idiots are still here. The AssKissingClub at it's best.
some really shitty reviews at Amazon - and by verified purchases (beware of any glowing 5 star reviews that don't say the company sent them the product free). Product doesn't even work well and the app sucks. Barbie Marketing and design - if you're not shamed by your shitty reviews on Amazon, then sadly the rose-colored glasses have come back on and Kim C is as clueless as she ever was. This never was and definitely now won't be the product that saves Mattel. Sales rank of 7,032 for a holiday TV Barbie item? That's a total fail. Then again, what would you expect from a company that's consistently F#$%d up anything digital for decades? They had Cynthia N running that group for god's sake. If that doesn't strike you as clueless desperation I don't know what is. She was the one who steadfastly refused to think the iPhone was a viable platform - not only for kids, but also for adults to abandon Flash for the Mattel site... This is also the company that took a woman who worked in nothing but barbie collector and knew nothing about real marketing and put her in charge of Apptivity - which worked out really well. Good thing she still has a job at Mattel - real value-added people left there (or the ones who can't get jobs at other companies)
People always love to file suits against big companies. That is why when we had that big recall 5-6 years ago Mattel got in front of it like true leaders (at the time) in the industry and addressed it head on inviting consumers into ES with their toys where we sat with them and determined which were and weren't recalls. Is the AI barbie going to be another debacle that sends us further down the financial rabbit hole? Probably. It's not tracking well, and early forecasts (coming from someone who handles forecasting for the company) don't look great. Let's see how our clueless leaders spin this when the quarterly reports come in.