The under 18 market is a rapidly expanding market in the wireless phone industry; parents with kids under the age of 12 have even jumped on the bandwagon and started providing their kids with mobile phones. Manufacturers of mobile phones, mobile phone accessories, and even the top carriers have realized this. They are all now taking steps to capture their share of this exploding market.
Carriers & Phones Just For Kids
It might seem almost unreal to many, but carriers and handset makers are targeting products specifically to kids. Firefly Mobile, a Florida based company, sells not only phones that are visually appealing to kids but pay as you go packages for them that appeal to parents concerned about curbing costs on cellular bills. A built in feature that allows parents to restrict incoming and outgoing calls to specified numbers in the phone book has great appeal to parents concerned also about safety. Parents can enter up to 20 numbers into the address book and also place restrictions on adding to the phone book. Restricting who your child can call, and most importantly who can contact them is vital to parental peace of mind.
Even the large carriers, like Verizon, made the decision to capture a portion of the market by releasing the Migo. Manufactured by LG, the Migo offers a simple 7 button interface that is very kid friendly. Modeled towards kids as young as 5, this phone offers great ease of use. An emergency button is accompanied by 4 speed dial numbers, making it very easy for a small child to understand and use.
Again, the ability to restrict incoming and outgoing calls is a great feature that appeals to all parents.
Another company, TicTalk, launched their own line of kid and parent friendly mobile phones that offered parents the ability to restrict incoming and outgoing calls while still allowing kids the ability to have a cell phone of their own. Using the AT& T mobile network, this prepaid phone with an unusual design form might not be as popular with the older kids but can offer great usability to kids under the age of 10.
One great bonus built into many mobile phones designed specifically for children is a GPS feature. This safety feature can offer incredible peace of mind to parents. Provider of mobile phones and plans, kajeet, offers a secure GPS Phone Locater website tool. They offer a web based tool that allows parents to locate their child via their cell phone; parents have the ability to set up a schedule that can automatically locate the phone at specified times of the day. For parents who rely on others to pick up their schools from school or drop them off at sports practice it can be a huge relief to know they will receive automatic reports letting them know if their child made it to their destination as scheduled.
Disney had tried to capture the market; however, at the end of 2007 they shut down their kid friendly mobile service (that made use of the Sprint network) due to their inability to capture a good profitable share of the market. Disney still continues to offer various products through the major carriers, however.
Perhaps not always ideal for every child, a mobile phone can be a very useful tool to help parents keep in touch with their kids. Phones and plans targeted towards kids offer features and functionality that can satisfy parental need to securely restrict incoming and outgoing calls while also allowing the kid to enjoy small amount of freedom with their mobile phone.
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