Source: Amazon
Amazonis trying to appeal to kids and families with the release of new, built-for-kids Kindle Kids Edition and Fire HD 10 Kids Edition tablets. Along with these new products, Amazon is expanding its Amazon FreeTime app and FreeTime Unlimited subscriptions. Featuring a six-inch, 167 ppi e-ink display with adjustable light settings, the new Kindle Kids Edition is a tablet made specifically with kids in mind. The specialty tablet includes a battery that last weeks, a two-year guarantee, access to over 1,000 eBooks with FreeTime Unlimited for a year and fun, kid-friendly cases for $109.99. It is available for pre-order now. It will start shipping on October 30.
We build kids products from the ground up with three ideas in mind: first, kids want a device experience designed just for them; second, parents dont want to worry about the content their kids are viewing; and third, parents want tools they can trust to help manage their kids device usage,” said Kurt Beidler, Director of Kids and Family, Amazon, in anews release.
Other features and benefits of a Kindle Kids Edition include:
- Kids can earn achievement badges to mark their progress toward goals.
- Titles are easy to find with enhanced browsing and search features.
- Kindle Kids Edition provides Word Wise, short, simple definitions above difficult words so children can learn and understand them.
- Like the adult version, it comes equipped with a dictionary. Words looked up in the dictionary are saved to the Vocabulary Building and made into flashcards for studying later.
- Kids can choose from kid-appropriate lock screen wallpaper.
Source: Amazon
Kindle Kids Edition makes reading fun with achievement badges to help motivate readers to complete the next chapter, plus features like Word Wise and Vocabulary Builder are designed to help early readers build their reading and comprehension skills, said Beidler.
The next generation Fire HD 10 Kids Edition is pricier at $199.99. It has many of the same features as the Kindle Kids edition, and it includes a one-year subscription to Amazon FreeTime Unlimited and faster charging. It is also available for pre-order on October 30. The tablets features include:
- Largest and fastest kids tablet
- Vivid 10.1 1080 full HD display
- 32 GB of storage
- Up to 12 hours of mixed-use battery life
- USB-C for reversible charge
- Kid-proof case with an adjustable stand in blue, pink or purple
With a year of Amazon FreeTime Unlimited, kids can access more than 20,000 books, including Audible books, videos, educational apps and games. It also includes parental controls so parents can manage time limits, set goals and adjust age filters.
FreeTime Unlimited provides the perfect balance between giving kids unlimited access to the content they love within a place thats theirs, while providing parents peace of mind knowing what their kids are enjoying is appropriate. Now, whether immersed in a good book, playing a game, or snuggled up watching a family movie, kids can enjoy fun content in an experience built just for them,added Beidler.
In addition to availability on the tablets, Fire TV is now offering the FreeTime app on the Fire TV Stick 2nd Gen and 4K so families can watch FreeTime on smart TVs. For those who subscribe to FreeTime Unlimited and Prime, families can access thousands of premium movies and TV shows.
Insider Take:
Amazon is targeting two specific audiences with these new devices and FreeTime Unlimited – kids and their parents. Kids wanted the latest technology, and parents want to be economical and educational while carefully selecting their content. Amazon allows them to meet all of those goals. And, of course, the timing is perfect with pre-orders starting just before the holiday season. Amazon can gauge the popularity through the pre-orders, so it is ready to fill stockings with kid-friendly Amazon devices.
