NABAZTAG: CULT STATUS IN EUROPE

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, MO
stories.nsf/tvradio/story/D9C890CA89B988CB86257347 0067623C?OpenDocument
Los Angeles Times
Aug 31 2007

The white plastic bunny from France looks sweet as it sits all by
itself on a kitchen counter. It’s a minimalist rabbit – bell-shaped
with simple black dots for eyes and a mouth, and pointed ears that
stick up straight. Quiet, nice bunny.

Then it gets an e-mail. Suddenly, the ears start twisting weirdly
in different directions, lights flash in its belly and the bunny
begins speaking.

Think of it as a cross between a pet rock and the Bride of Chucky.

What brings about this transformation? Wi-Fi. Advertisement

The rabbit, whose commercial name is Nabaztag (Armenian for rabbit),
is one of the latest attempts to give consumers another use for
wireless Internet besides getting home computers online. According
to Forrester Research, 27 percent of U.S. homes are now equipped for
Wi-Fi, a technology that only a few years ago seemed exotic.

The bunny can pass along stock prices, weather forecasts and news
headlines, all updated from Internet sources. It can play an Internet
radio station or a short MP3 file sent by a friend.

Another recent product using Wi-Fi is a digital screen, framed in
wood for hanging on the wall, that can receive pictures from Internet
photo services.

With the rise of Wi-Fi came radios, cameras and portable Internet
phones with wireless capability. But they never caught fire with
the public. The latest rage, Apple Inc.’s iPhone, has Wi-Fi for Web
browsing and e-mail, although not for making online calls.

Nabaztag is all about Wi-Fi. Although it didn’t hit the United States
until this year, it has been on sale in Europe since 2005, where it
has gained a cult following.

On YouTube, there are scores of videos featuring Nabaztags dressed
in a variety of outfits. Most elaborate of all are videos of a Wi-Fi
bunny opera featuring 100 of the critters that was staged last year
at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

"It’s an interesting, quirky device," says Josh Martin, an analyst
at Yankee Group. "But it doesn’t do anything all that startling." And
if it is a gimmick, it’s a fairly expensive one at about $190.

The PhotoVu picture frame has just one basic function – to show off
digital photos. The Wi-Fi aspect of that is nifty, but not necessary.

And the frames are pricey, starting at about $1,000 for a 19-inch
screen.

Martin believes that the future of Wi-Fi devices lies elsewhere.

"You could have a portable music player that would put a piece of
music you purchased on the home Wi-Fi network the minute you walk
in the door," he said. "That’s the kind of thing that has more of a
chance of succeeding."