The XO laptop Image via Wikipedia
When the XO laptop was launched by One Laptop per Child, Steve Jobs reportedly called it a "toy". What did you expect for children Steve? There are now 2 million XOs in the hands of children around the world and quite a few adults also use the XO on a daily basis.
The notion of technology "toys" intrigues me and there have been several good posts on the subject recently. The GarlicSlim blog has a post entitled Technology principle: The toy will win. In this post the writer defines a toy as
"a technological product which is simple and fun to use, and which may be criticized by some people as being weak and not suitable for serious work".
He cites the iPod as an outstanding example of a toy. Another example of toys cited is the micro-computer in the computer era dominated by IBM mainframes. To explain the success of a 'toys" approach, the author cites two reasons:
- Toys do not lose sight of the fact that the product must serve the user
- Toys focus on the user experience and "fun"
Another post on the subject of toys comes from Jon Kolko's recent talk at TED London. Jon is a designer with Frog Design in London. As is typical of the Frog designers, Kolko provides the intellectual or conceptual basis to understand toys..and their success as products. Kolko believes that personality plays a big role in creativity and states:
The most successful designs have the ability to “turn everything on its head,” while also being playful, humorous, and risky.
That sounds like another definition of a toy to me.
The iPad is another Apple "toy" in the good sense of the word. Maybe he learned from OLPC :) I have never heard Jobs discuss toys. Does anybody have a link to Jobs on toys. Leave it in the comments.
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