Looking for your next tech career? Try thinking inside the box, the toy box that is... These days there’s an option beyond software and cellular for tech professionals that you may think is child’s play. The toy industry is a $75 billion global business and at the American International Toy Fair in New York this year toy companies worldwide let it be known that they are banking on making high tech toys to pull their profits up. Toymakers are rebounding from a holiday season that fell flat after a big build up.
Companies like Hasbro Inc and LeapFrog Enterprises missed fourth quarter marks after a peak in early sales caused them to overestimate. Still the toy market is strong and numbers are up 3% from last year at this time and 2% over all after a decline in previous years.
Booths at the exhibition let it be known that companies are gearing new toys to tech savvy children who are connected and socialize online. Avatars are available for even classic brands and companies like Lego have created an online universe though in my family we prefer the Lego Digital Designer where we can create our own Lego sets online, design the packaging and purchase the finished product. Even the toys in the box at the drive thru have codes kids can enter in and interact with online.
More than a web presence, companies are combining toys with technology in a way that my generation could only dream of as children and my father’s generation never would have fathomed. Wowwee, the company that introduced a cardboard electric guitar called "Paper Jamz" has released a microphone that works the same way.
How cool is it that Mattel unveiled Hot Wheels cars with a tiny video camera inside so you can capture first person perspective of the track you set up!?!?! Maybe it’s because I have boys that I find that more fascinating than the Barbie with a video camera in her chest. Either way all I had was the PXL-2000 to get my career in cinematography going as a kid.
From stationary bikes that plug into video game on your TV, to online social networks and the real world toys that compliment them, kids are looking for more than bells and whistles; they want websites and gigabytes and companies are responding. Will you be the next innovator it the world of tech toys? Find out at TechCareers.com.
By Heather Fairchild - Heather is a multimedia developer with experience in web, film, photography and animation as well as traditional fine arts like painting and sculpting. In addition to writing for TechCareersBlog.com, she is co-founder of design and promotion company, Creative Kazoo with fellow Nexxt blogger, Staci Dennis. Heather’s spare time consists of making puppets, teaching Sunday School, building Legos and doing science experiments with her children.
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