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BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE: DAILY BRIEFING | |||||||||||
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BW ONLINE DAILY BRIEFING |
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A Couple of Computers...Just for Girls? Turns out these two machines aimed especially at the female market aren't totally Ms.-conceived "It's not pink!" Funny how often those words were uttered -- with varying degrees of surprise and disappointment -- by every man, woman, and child upon seeing my new Barbie Computer, licensed by Mattel and made by Patriot Computer Corp. I had been giddy with excitement when a colleague told me earlier that there was such a thing. What a great idea, I thought -- and a terrific way to interest young ladies in PCs. Alas, it really isn't pink. As a life-long Barbie fan. I was crestfallen to find instead a gray and metallic-silver shell, adorned with a few flowers reminiscent of an Austin Powers poster and only a few faint Barbie logos. (O.K., the PC tower has a pink plastic carrying handle. But big deal.) The good news is that assembling the computer, minus its digital camera, is simple, thanks to USB technology (and to my helpful male colleague). Only one peripheral device needs to be plugged into the Intel-powered minitower, and the PC's peripherals are configured automatically. The true Barbie-ness of the computer is apparent only after you turn it on. The pink desktop screen has icons for various programs that come included for $599. Want to see the fashion model as Rapunzel? Want to play detective? Care to design your own Barbie clothes, or personalize your desktop with a lipstick cursor and pictures of vintage Barbies as your background? You can do all this and lots more, thanks to an impressive array of CD-ROMS (not all of them Barbie-related) that come in their own purse-like carrying case. This stuff could keep Barbie-lovers of all ages busy for days, playing the kind of make-believe that's hard to find on the Net. And oh, yeah, there's the computer. It comes with 333-MHz Intel processor, a 3-GB hard drive, and 32 megabytes of memory. The little miss can use it to write papers for school, or get on the Internet, via the 56K modem. A TURN OFF? Still, since it's the software and not the hardware that makes this a Barbie computer, I had to wonder: Why would a Barbiephile want this clunky, unattractive setup? It's hard to imagine any 8-year-old threatening to run away from home if she doesn't get her very own PC in battleship gray. Granted, $599 isn't a bad price for what you get, and the computer is upgradable (to a 466-MHz, 13-GB, and 64-MB job). But really, how are other family members going to feel about using something labeled the Barbie Computer? There's the rub: While it isn't Barbiefied enough to appeal to a real Barbie fan, the flowers and logo -- baked on, not pasted -- could be enough to turn off others in a household, such as a younger brother. He, of course, would probably insist on getting the much cooler-looking Hot Wheels Computer. (Maybe Mattel and Patriot know what they were doing after all.) My hunch is that Mattel would have been better off just selling the CD-ROMS and their handy-dandy holder as a package, maybe with a special-edition doll called -- what else? -- Internet Barbie. ("Hi, I'm Barbie. Let's surf the Net!") Or if Mattel was determined to have a Barbie Computer, it could have taken a cue from the Barbie Talking Online Laptop. Yes, it's a $20 (approximately) plaything, aimed at ages 3 and up, but it's totally Barbielicious -- hot pink, with Barbie's face and distinctive signature plastered prominently. Now, that's a real Barbie computer. NO HELP WANTED. Going from girlish to grownup, I turned my attention to the i-opener Internet Personal Access Device, marketed in one campaign as "so easy, even a woman can use it." (The company has since dropped that slogan from its marketing campaign, according to a spokesperson.) Based on that description, I was half-expecting a combination makeup mirror, microwave, and computer. But the i-opener, powered by Netpliance, is basically a small, flat monitor and a keyboard -- a light, compact, $200 way to get connected to the Internet and to use e-mail. As a woman, I decided to take the computer maker's claim at face value. I clearly couldn't judge the device on anything more than ease of use. So to see just how easy, I refused to look at any instructions or get any help in setting it up or using it. I shooed away my helpful male colleague, and got down to business. Mercifully, the thing comes preprogrammed -- no software or anything tricky like that to wrestle with! (When you call Netpliance to order your i-opener, you even tell them the phone number you will be using to dial up the Net.) By using nothing more than common sense and intuition (maybe this thing really is for women), I was able to hook it up, get it going, and navigate the Web. PUSH, AND POOF! That may not sound like such a big deal to a computer-savvy person, but it made this woman want to roar. And the i-opener really is kind of cute: Instead of an ugly mouse (who designed and named those things, anyway?), it has a sort of big button on the right side of the keyboard, with two eensy-weensy buttons on the left side that help control it. Two hands at once? Gosh, the designers have a lot of faith in us gals. Also, there are some easily identifiable buttons that you can just push, and poof! -- you're where you want to be. It's almost as easy as crossing your arms and blinking. As much as I wanted to love the Barbie Computer, I did -- even if it isn't pink. And as much as I wanted to hate the i-opener, it isn't the poor little machine's fault that someone saddled it with that dopey slogan: "So easy even a woman can use it." It's just misunderstood -- and mistargeted, I think. Because if you can get where you need to go without having to stop for directions, it's really the perfect device for men. When she isn't surfing the Web with Barbie, O'Connell edits for BW Online
EDITED BY DOUGLAS HARBRECHT
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