Cell Phones Blog

Remember around Christmas 2005 new phones started rolling out with limited features and HUGE buttons. The point of the LG Migo and Cingular Firefly was to offer parents phone options for their kids. The idea was, equip junior with a limited cell phone in case of emergencies. Nowadays both Verizon and Cingular have discontinued their kids cell phone offerings and do not have plans to release similar version.

Cell Phones For Kids Obsolete

Here are the top five reasons why cell phones for kids never took off.

5. Mobile phones are appealing a lot to kids these days. Kids, especially girls, are fascinated by the devices and love the status a new cell phone provides. The problem, if you’re old enough to understand how cool a cell phone is, you don’t want a kids one so you’re friends make fun of you. If you’re too young to care then you’re probably too young to operate a cell phone properly.

4. Kids are among the fastest growing consumer segment of these devices. These days, mobile phones come equipped with games and ringtones. Kids can play games like Champ rally, snakes, solitiare and Pacman on their handsets. Apart, from playing games, kids can also use these gizmos for many other purposes. Limited access cell phones like the Firefly and Migo don’t offer any features.

3. They can use them for staying in touch with their parents and parents can thus stay informed regarding their child’s whereabouts and safety. Parents are themselves the ones buying cell phones for their kids. If you have a choice between a free entry level handset and a kids phone why would you opt for the cheaper smaller one with less features? Cost is not a factor so mayn have just opted for the ‘real thing’.

2. Kids get older. No point getting them a cell phone with limited features today when they’ll grow out of it and complain for a new one tomorrow.

1. Features of protection like restricting calls, restricting minutes, etc., are features that can apply to any phone. There were a couple of limited features on the kids phones that you could not get on any other phone (the limited address book). But it appears these features came across as limitations to the actual device than positives.

All in all, the concept made sense for a market wondering if a five year old should have a phone, however, the entry level cell phones provide the same features, at the same cost, and are big enough to let your kid ‘grow into’ it.

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