Switched On: Mattel's Juice Box Enters The Matrix

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a weekly column that covers everything related to digital convergence, the connected home, and all those other multimedia buzzwords that marketers are tossing out these days. Last week he argued that Microsoft's Media Center Will Save Television, this week he looks at the Juice Box, Mattel's new personal video player for kids:

While the portable video player may be a big question mark for adults, it has already become a hit in the children's market. It all started when Hasbro released the portable, disc-based VideoNow player, which used a proprietary format to play back grainy low-resolution monochrome video at a low frame rate. Despite skepticism that black-and-white cartoons had been passé since the days of Steamboat Willie (or at least the 1985 a-ha video for "Take On Me"), Hasbro sold 1.4 million units in the first year. It followed up with the VideoNow Color, which uses a proprietary format to play back grainy, low-resolution, color video at a low frame rate.

Hasbro's arch-rival Mattel faced two choices – either release its experimental army of flesh-eating life-size Barbie robots or develop a competitive product. Given that the last time Mattel tried the Barbie robot army approach, a FOX producer discovered them and created the television series The Swan, Mattel's designers came up with the Juice Box.

Not only does Mattel�s answer to the VideoNow have a larger screen and use more compact media, but it can also play back photos and MP3s, albeit at a maximum bitrate of 128 kbps. Furthermore, getting these media into your Juice Box requires a $35 adapter. While not expensive in the absolute sense, it represents a significant premium for a product that has already been discounted to about $60 out of the gate. In contrast to the variety stocked in your supermarket, this Juice Box squeezes you.

Indeed, the real revenue stream for the Juice Box � like the VideoNow or even Game Boy for that matter � is packaged content Packaged video a is not only desirable from a supply-side perspective, but it eliminates the hassles of capturing or downloading and transferring. Rather than use discs like the VideoNow or ROM cartridges like the Game Boy, Mattel has taken a bit of a risk with a new technology from Matrix Semiconductor. Using a new 3-D chip design that stacks more capacity in the same amount of space, Matrix claims that it can deliver packaged content faster and less expensively than masked ROM and avoid the moving parts that plague discs.

Matrix is certainly not the first company to try to establish a new portable write-once format. Introduced in 2001, DataPlay sought to take on the DVD with a 500 MB disc about the size of a quarter and burdened with enough cumbersome copy protection to shame Sony�s Mini-Disc group. Despite broad investor support, its lengthy time to market left it vulnerable to the falling prices of flash memory. Two poorly received portable music players, including one from iRiver, stumbled into the market and the technology was assumed dead. Last year, though, DataPlay�s assets were purchased by a new company. It is working on new versions, including a 7GB blue-laser version, but faces an uphill battle.

---

Ross Rubin is director of industry analysis at NPD Techworld, a division of market research and analysis provider The NPD Group. Views expressed in Switched On, however, are his own. Feedback is welcome at [e-mail].

[Zack Brock @ Dec 19th 2005 12:07AM]

Drab.

[Greg Gaub @ Dec 19th 2005 12:07AM]

Yeah, if you could rip your own video, it'd be worth it. Instead, I'll be getting my kid a GBASP and a GBA Movie Player cart. Slap in a big CF card and he'll have movies, music, books, and even NES games.

[itan @ Dec 19th 2005 12:07AM]

just get a flashcart you cant do way more than that stupid movie player, i've put movies nes snes sega gamegear games on my gba and theres even more emulators that i havent even tied yet. go here http://www.gbaflashguide.com and all will be explained.

[GSims @ Dec 19th 2005 12:07AM]

The Swan was a show on Fox...not ABC.

[Bob @ Dec 19th 2005 12:07AM]

Looks pretty lame...

[itstarted @ Dec 19th 2005 12:07AM]

Don't know what everyone was expecting... but...
I bought this off the shelf at Target where they had a deal price of $54.95 including the adapter kit for MP3's and Jpegs...(card reader, adapter, software, and a 32MB SD mem chip.)
I guess some people think there should be Bose speakers included... With a headphone, the sound is not bad at all...
The adapter takes an SDchip up to 512MB... The Jpegs convert to a prorietary format with a size of 57KB which means you can put a weeks vacation photos on the 32MB SD chip, included.
MP3s can be copied from any source right to the adapter... (Only plays up to 128 speed). An easy Jpeg converter and software CD ripper is easy to use.
The case is strong, 'cuz I dropped it and it didn't break. The pics are as good as can be expected on the screen.
There are controls for brightness, contrast, music or pic selection, and a timer for slide shows. Controls are simple and easy to use.
Dunno where else you can buy an MP3 player that shows Jpeg pics, and plays for from 5 to 15 hours on 3 AA cells. That doesn't even count the TV capability for the proprietary memory, @ about $10 to $20 per chip... (guess that's where Mattel planned to make money)...
Anyway, I've had it for about a month, and am happy to have a fun player without worrying about breaking a $100 to $400 unit.
Works for me!

[Fred @ Dec 19th 2005 12:07AM]

I would not recommend this product for any savvy kid unless you AVOID buying the mp3 import kit and only buy proprietary cartridges. I bought four of these at Target and had to take them back because the mp3 import was so poorly designed. As mentioned in the article it does not do bitrates over 128. Well, it also doesn't do mono or too low a bit rate or too high a bit rate - and leaves you guessing what DOES work! I wanted my nieces and nephews to be able to copy thier own music and play their own video, but this is not possible. Sorry. Poor software and greedy marketing (which implies you can play any video) make this a poor product to recommend. But, we've seen it all before - great hardware, cheap software. Too bad.

[SchoolisDumb @ Dec 19th 2005 12:07AM]

I just got this MP3 Video Player and I think personally it is great. I got the JuiceBox at a reduced rate of $24.98 + tax and now that I see I can add a 512MB Memory Card to it I am very happy with my purchase. They are selling other 512MB Mp3's for alot more money and they can't play videos or load pictures. As far as the I-Pods go, no one needs that many songs, loading thousands of songs is just to much for me.

http://www.schoolisdumb.com