By Alexandra Burlacu | Sep 11, 2012 01:52 PM EDT
Toys R Us has decided to join the increasingly crowded tablet market; the toy retailer announced on Monday, Sept. 10, that it plans to start selling its own proprietary tablet designed specifically for children. The news comes ahead of the lucrative holiday season, which can account for up to 40 percent of retailers' annual sales.
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The 7-inch tablet, called Tabeo, will be available only at Toys R Us, which means that prospective customers will not be able to try it out in stores and then purchase it for a lower price on a rival retailer's Web site. The tablet goes on sale Oct. 21, and it is already available for pre-order on the company's Web site.
Toys R Us not only faces increasing pressure from online-only retailers such as Amazon, but it is also facing tough price competition on basic toys from Wal-Mart and Target.
"It is our strategic position to offer products that you can't find anywhere [else] or be compared on price," said Toys R Us vice president Troy Peterson.
The Toys R Us tablet runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the second-most recent version of Google's popular mobile operating system. It sports a 7-inch display with a 800 x 480 pixel resolution, 1GHz ARM cortex A8 processor, and 1GB of RAM. Tabeo also comes packed with 4GB of built-in storage, expandable to 32GB through a Micro SD card slot. Other features include a front-facing camera, an HDMI port for connecting the tablet to a TV, and Wi-Fi connectivity for browsing the Internet, including Flash-enabled Web sites.
The tablet comes preloaded with 50 games, books, and educational apps, and offers access to 6,000 more apps through the Tabeo store. Pre-loaded games include the popular "Angry Birds," "Temple Run," "Fruit Ninja," and "Cut the Rope."
Because it is a tablet designed for children, Tabeo also comes with extensive parental controls for up to eight different users. Parents can set the tablet to block 27 different categories of content, as well as Web sites, and they can also set specific days and times when kids are allowed to access the Internet.
Tabeo comes with a $150 price tag, and is available exclusively through Toys R Us. According to the company's Web site, customers who pre-order the tablet should get their device on Oct. 1.
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