http://www.investopedia.com/news/barbie-ai-hologram-your-childs-new-best-friend-mat/?partner=YahooSA
$300? i'd just as soon get my kid a laptop or tablet then some glitchy half assed produced faux AI
7 replies (most recent on top)
Of all things i would want to see as a hologram i would rank Barbie pretty damn well last. The problem with this kind of product is that they think that if they want to try a new technology that only the Barbie brand has the marketing spend to get it through. Because its for damn sure isn't to make money.
It's sort of thinking that if i dress my gramma in the latest trendiest outfit from forever 21 everyone won't notice that she can't seem to find the bathroom by herself. The mentality of this company is that they will prop up the dinosaurs of the past with whatever duct tape, chewing gum and bird turds they can find and call it new. All for the all mighty stock price which keeps the board of non-directors up all night in their 600 thread count Egyptian sheets. If you want to change the destiny of the company you have to throw out the sacred cows and build its reputation around a new paradigm. If it means the stock plummets until you get back on your feet then so be it. The company needs to be set for a sustainable future, and so far this ain't it. Hologram that.
When I saw the news on this it just looked sad - the product was so clearly a prototype and rushed to Toy Fair that it's doomed beforehand. And like the WTF WiFi Dreamhouse, this isn't going to fix Barbie. Stop distracting the teams with useless tech. Maybe start work on 2018/2019 tech ideas and give them time to iterate and be actually good.
But given RD's love of trying to be splashy, doubt that will happen. Heard from some press that even they knew this product was never going to happen.
And only designer types still think orders are written at ToyFair. It's been about 30 years since that happened for ANY company. Wake up and understand the sales cycle - after all, it's where the money for your StarBuck's come from :')
Sales & marketing types should push to see a hologram of piles of the cash generated and orders written at Toy Fair, because those only exist in their mind.
This POS was the hopeless distraction centerpiece of NYTF 2017, as was the Thingmaker 3D printer in 2016. And talk about desperately throwing crap at the wall to see what sticks, how many orders for Mike's $250 POV (more like POS) Batmobile have we written? Please put these overhyped, destined-to-fail products out of their misery before they embarass us any further. Stop kidding yourself. Mattel. Does. Not. Do. Tech.
Barbie-In-A-Box? For $300 to talk to Barbie? This is EXACTLY the example of how RD has NO CLUE of the commercial viability of technology. Technology has to be somewhat affordable to be adopted by even the smallest of markets. Technology for Technology's sake is a misconception that only neophytes have.
RD is a rank amateur when it comes to viable business models and needs to go and take a job where glitz and glamour replace commercialism and profit. IMAX is looking for a CMO - maybe he should take that job......
Ridiculous.
$300??? This is one reason we miss the tiger mom market...selling dumb sh*t.