欧朋生活志

在玩具行业看来，最近关于召回事件如潮水般的报导并非唯一让人担心的事情。年仅6岁的小女孩希拉里•罗伯茨(Hilary Roberts)要iPhone手机作为圣诞礼物的小小心愿，折射出了一个让玩具业不安的更深层次问题。

希拉里的父亲斯科特•罗伯茨(Scott Roberts)是旧金山一家互联网公司的高管，他说这孩子根本没想过要个洋娃娃。今年她想要的礼物中没有一件是传统的，一开口就是“我能得到一部iPhone手机吗？”。

现在离圣诞节只剩下不到一周的时间了，而玩具业发现今年自己仍是被动挨打，这一次的敌人是林林总总的消费电子类产品。除了苹果公司(Apple Inc.)的产品令人头疼之外，玩具业还要与任天堂(Nintendo Co.)、索尼(Sony Corp.)以及微软(Microsoft Corp.)等公司重获追捧的游戏机产品以及最近登场的游戏大作一起争夺市场。想想看如果能用电子游戏《吉它英雄3：摇滚传奇》(Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock)尝试着演奏Kiss乐队的经典作品《Rock and Roll All Nite》，谁还要玩具火车啊？

希拉里的愿望正折射出玩具业所面临的“年龄压缩”困局，也就是说少儿开始接触比他们大一些的孩子、甚至成年人使用的物品。现在少年儿童出现“小大人”特征时的实际年龄越来越小，令传统玩具更加难以俘获他们的心。

据市场研究机构NPD Funworld称，现在美国儿童从5岁半开始使用电脑，6岁就懂得用CD和DVD，8岁左右开始接触音乐播放器，年纪都比两年前调查时略小。而且对于消费者来说购买这些电子产品也有一样好处，那就是家长们往往也可以使用或分享它们；鉴于电子产品的价格通常要远远超出传统玩具，因此它们在假日预算中占据了很大一部分。

玩具行业也不会坐以待毙。他们推出了富有时尚气息的新一代电子产品，不但比成人版的便宜，而且外观更可爱，更适合儿童使用；其中包括面向学龄前儿童的电视游戏，以及数码相机等品牌消费电子产品。今年玩具厂商还推出了大批的社交网站，目的是在这些小大人们成为MySpace和Facebook的用户之前将他们争取过来。

现在还不清楚今年玩具业在互联网和电子市场展开的反击能否结束过去五年来全业销售每年呈单位数下滑的局面。美国零售联合会(National Retail Federation)最近公布的数据显示，玩具开支今年将排在电子产品、衣服和礼品卡之后位居第四。

美泰公司(Mattel Inc.)负责产品设计的副总裁伊芙林•维奥尔(Evelyn Viohl)表示，公司已经调整策略来适应儿童消费者捉摸不定的喜好，特别是那些最难把握的8至12岁上网儿童。

维奥尔谈到她的设计室时称，如今的情况与四年前已大不相同，当前的问题不在于如何抵抗高科技产品的入侵，而在于将不同的玩具形式与电子产品融为一体。这意味着今后要更多地倚重工程师和“对游戏满怀热情的设计师”，来针对那些可谓“科技通”的小孩们开发出符合他们口味的新产品。而这一转变的成果已体现在互联网上。美泰公司在节日来临之际结合自己一款售价60美元的芭比娃娃MP3播放器推出了面向少女的社交网站Barbiegirls.com。小女孩们通过此网站将进入一个围绕该品牌而建的虚拟世界。这个网站本身是免费的，其创意来自于《第二人生》(Second Life)这款大人玩的电子游戏。目前该网站的注册用户已达到了840万人。美泰公司的对手MGA Entertainment Inc.也基于自己造型时尚的Bratz娃娃推出了Be-Bratz.com网站。

另外一个规模小一些的网站Moshi Monsters于今年秋季进入公开测试阶段。其伦敦的母公司Mind Candy称，此网站有朝一日在少儿用户群中可能成为另一个Facebook。需要购买售价10美元的“MoPod”钥匙链才能获得该网站的登录密码。用户在网站上可以照料一只虚拟宠物，而宠物根据感情程序会有喜怒哀乐。该公司首席执行长迈克尔•史密斯(Michael Smith)称，他们效仿的是皮克斯(Pixar)的路子。换句话说，新科技也可以唤起小孩子对卡通之类传统题材的喜好。

旧金山顾问理查德•吉尔伯特(Richards Gilbert)表示，这些网站看上去有足够的吸引力将青少年从游戏机那争取回来。他10岁的女儿就被华特-迪士尼公司(Walt Disney Co.)的网站Clubpenguin.com深深吸引住。这个网站创造了一个冰雪覆盖的虚拟世界，孩子们以企鹅的卡通形像在其中游玩闲逛。吉尔伯特又称，这种网站又并非传统的玩具。你可以把孩子们所有的玩具拿开，只给他们一台电脑、Xbox游戏机，以及其他电子小玩艺，他们就会很高兴。

现在玩具的科技含量也越来越高，即使学龄前儿童的玩具也是如此，而过去他们一般只有积木可玩。美泰旗下Fisher-Price品牌推出了一种名为“灵巧自行车”(Smart Cycle Physical Learning Arcade System)的儿童健身器。这款式售价90美元的玩具今年极为畅销，它的造型像一架小自行车。它受欢迎的原因一方面是有些父母担心自己的小孩过于肥胖，另一方面也能满足那些渴望接触高科技的幼儿──因为玩具本身还捆绑了一款模拟骑自行车的游戏。

香港伟易达集团(VTECH Holdings Ltd.)推出了名为Tote & Go Laptop Plus的产品。这款配有液晶显示器的产品售价22美元，是一种给小孩使用的电脑，能让小孩子学习3岁年龄层的数学、语言和音乐知识。还有的公司干脆在今年圣诞购物季推出一系列面向儿童的电子产品，期望与消费电子类产品短兵相接。

维亚康姆(Viacom Inc.)旗下MTV电视网子公司、拥有玩具经营权的Nickelodeon今年就推出了“NPower”系列的数码相机（售价22至80美元）、音乐播放器（售价25至50美元）和DVD播放器，并以海绵宝宝(SpongeBob)和小小探险家朵拉(Dora the Explorer)等卡通形像加以推广。Nickelodeon消费类产品部门总裁利•安妮•布洛斯基(Leigh Anne Brodsky)称，我愿意把小孩子看成是一个家庭的首席技术长。该公司授意零售商将其产品与其他消费电子类商品摆在一起，可谓颠覆了“苦大仇深”的玩具业对抗电子产品的传统格局。

Younger Set Wants High-Tech Gadgets This Holiday

For the toy industry, the recent spate of recall-related headlines isn't the only thing to fear this holiday season. A more fundamental concern is the iPhone on six-year-old Hilary Roberts's wish list.

'She's not after a doll,' says her father, Scott Roberts, an Internet executive from San Francisco. 'There's not one traditional gift she's asking for this year. She's asking: 'Can I have an iPhone?''

With one weekend left before Christmas, the toy industry finds itself on the defensive again -- beset by a host of consumer electronic products. Besides Apple Inc.'s offerings to worry about, toy makers are competing with resurging popularity of entertainment systems from Nintendo Co., Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp. along with recently released videogame titles. Who needs toy trains when you can take a crack at thundering the Kiss anthem 'Rock and Roll All Nite' in the videogame Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock?

That choice reflects the toy industry's ongoing struggle against 'age compression,' the phenomenon of young children reaching for items used by older kids or even adults. These days, kids are grabbing for more adult experiences at ever younger ages, making it ever harder for traditional toys to capture children's imagination.

According to market-research firm NPD Funworld of Port Washington, N.Y., children begin playing with computers at age 5 1/2; CDs and DVD players around six; and music players around eight -- all slightly younger than two years ago. And these electronics items have an advantage for consumers: Parents often use and share the same items, which are often far more expensive than the average toy and therefore lock up a lot of the holiday budget.

The toy industry isn't sitting idle. It has fashioned another generation of electronic gadgetry of its own, cheaper than their adult alternatives and more pink and kid-geared, including videogame tie-ups for preschoolers and branded consumer electronics like digital cameras. This year, toy makers also have released a host of social networking sites aimed to snap up potential users of MySpace and Facebook before age compression overtakes them, too.

It's unclear whether this year's run at the online and electronics markets will be enough to reverse the pattern of single-digit declines in toy sales the industry experienced for the past half decade. Toy purchases are expected to come in fourth this year in overall spending -- after electronics, clothes and gift cards -- according to a recent study by the National Retail Federation.

All the same, Evelyn Viohl, the design vice president at Mattel Inc., says the game plan has been changing to realign operations with the fickle tastes of children, particularly the hard-to-get 'tween set of kids age eight to 12 who flock online.

'We're in a different place than we were in four years ago,' she says of her own design labs, where it's not a question of combating high-tech gadgets, she says, but rather making a 'fusion of different play patterns with electronics.' That's meant more dependence on engineers and 'designers that are into gaming' to bring in new product lines that will appeal to tech-savvy kids, she says. The fruits of the push are already apparent on the Internet.

The company enters the holidays with Barbiegirls.com, a social networking site for girls tied into a Barbie-shaped MP3 player ($60). The site -- where girls are invited to join a virtual world based on the brand -- is free to users and takes cues from Second Life, an adult-age virtual world without the branded theme. More than 8.4 million users have registered. Competitor MGA Entertainment Inc. released a site of its own, Be-Bratz.com, for its sassy $20 Bratz doll.

Moshi Monsters, a smaller site launched this this fall in beta phase, would like to one day hold the place of Facebook for a preteen crowd, says its London-based parent Mind Candy. The site is accessed with a code that comes with a $10 'MoPod' key chain, unlocking a world where users care for a pet that responds with computer-generated emotions. Michael Smith, the company's chief executive officer, says 'we're modeled on the Pixar angle' -- in other words, the new tech landscape can still encourage traditional children's tastes like cartoons.

The sites seem to have enough appeal to wean youngsters from game consoles, says Richards Gilbert, a consultant in San Francisco. His 10-year-old daughter heads straight to Walt Disney Co.'s Clubpenguin.com networking site where cartoon avatars waddle around in a snow world. But the site, he says, isn't a traditional toy. 'You could take all their toys away,' he says. 'Just give them a computer, Xbox and gadgets, they'd be happy.'

Toys are getting more high-tech, even for preschoolers who usually reach for low-tech building blocks. Smart Cycle Physical Learning Arcade System ($90), from Mattel's Fisher-Price unit, is a miniature treadmill-like bicycle toy that's proved a hot seller this year, marketed to parents concerned with childhood obesity. But the pitch has also extended to what the company sees as tech-thirsty toddlers -- the toy ties up to a videogame that simulates a bicycle ride.

Hong Kong-based VTech Holdings Ltd. is offering a line called the Tote & Go Laptop Plus ($22), a kiddie computer with an LCD readout that teaches three-year-olds math, language and music lessons. And some companies have pulled the gloves off entirely this holiday season, creating lines of kid-oriented gadgets they hope will compete directly with consumer electronics.

This season, Nickelodeon, a unit of Viacom Inc.'s MTV Networks that also licenses toys, launched NPower, a line of digital cameras ($22 to $80), music players ($25 to $50) and DVD players ($50) branded with characters like SpongeBob and Dora the Explorer. 'I like to think of kids as the chief technology officers of their families,' says Leigh Anne Brodsky, president of Nickelodeon's consumer-products division. The company is having retailers place them alongside other consumer electronics -- reversing the traditional turf war with the gadgets that have bedeviled the toy industry.
 

   来源：华尔街日报