This fall, Toys "R" Us will release the Tabeo, a $150 tablet aimed at children.
The Wi-Fi enabled device will ship pre-loaded with 50 games, such as Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja, and offer extensive parental safety controls.
The Tabeo sports a 7-inch screen with 800 x 480 pixel resolution, 1GB of RAM, a base of 4GB of storage which can be brought up to 32GB with a Micro SD card slot, a 1-GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor, a front-facing camera, and a Mini-HDMI port. The device will run on Android's 4.0 Update Ice Cream Sandwich.
Troy Peterson, vice president, and divisional merchandise manager at Toys "R" Us told the Daily News that "We know kids really well and we know what they like."
"We knew we could develop a tablet that was fun for the kids, yet safe for the parents," he added.
Peterson notes that French tablet maker Archos will manufacture the device.
Needham & Co. toy analyst Sean McGowan told the site that "Tabeo represents a pretty good value considering its price and what it comes loaded with, but it will be a challenge to get consumers to want an unknown brand when there are so many products out there."
The Tabeo's main competitors are the Meep, Lexibook, Kurio, and LeapFrog LeapPad 2. The Tabeo price matches all of these tablets at $149.99 except for the LeapPad 2, which has the edge of a $99.99 retail price.
Preorders can be made online at Toysrus.com. Look for the Tabeo at retail on October 21.