Profiting on mobile kids?

Kansas City Star writes about industry efforts to profit from the "more than 20 million 8- to 12-year-old youngsters who make up the “tween” market." The article looks at the efforts by the various carriers to address this new opportunity.

Yankee Group estimates that "the 5.3 million 8- to 12-year-old wireless phone users today are expected to swell to 10.5 million in four years." Marina Amoroso at Yankee Group believes the companies that can better tailor offerings to tweens and their families will benefit.

So far handsets targeting this market look more like toys than phones. Amoroso said, "Kids are expecting a certain amount of coolness. If they are trying to sell to kids, it doesn’t mean they can’t make the product better."

If a tween already has a DS or PSP and/or iPod then there is no way they are going to want a kiddie phone from Firefly or Migo...