Products from well-known brands such as Lego and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were among the major winners during the 2013 Toy of the Year Awards.
But only one product won the inaugural "people's choice" award for best toy: LeapPad2, a tablet for children that costs US$100 (Dh367).
The victory for LeapFrog Enterprises, a company from California that calls itself a leader in "educational entertainment" for children, underscores the major strides technology has made within the toy sector. Last year, the company's tablets and software dominated three out of the top five toys that raked in the most money within the United States, according to market research from NPD Group. While overall revenues for the toy industry in the United States declined slightly compared with 2011, from $16.6 billion down to $16.5bn last year, a larger share of this money shifted to pricier products.
"We're seeing consumers willing to trade up to more expensive toys," says Ross Crupnick, the senior vice president of industry analysis at NPD Group.
In the UAE, some electronics retailers have found that more parents are buying for their children devices originally designed with teens and adults in mind, including tablets, smartphones and touchscreen MP3 players. Others have not seen an upturn in such sales yet, although they note tech companies are increasingly targeting younger users.
"Manufacturers are looking at the space via their ecosystems, whether this be through dedicated hardware or applications that aim to capture this audience," says Omar Kassim, the founder of JadoPado, an online tech retailer in the UAE.
"Parents tend to be less price-sensitive when buying for their younger children and have a tendency to generally want more for their children," he adds.
Here are just some of the gadgets that manufacturers are gearing at little ones today:
Infant Monitors
A growing number of security systems now connect to smartphones, allowing concerned homeowners to view a live video feed of their premises regardless of where they travel.
Withings, which creates smart products and apps for the wellness sector, applies a similar concept to technology for parents who want to watch their infants. The company's Smart Baby Monitor, which costs $250, is a small device that can be set near a child while they are sleeping or being cared for by a nanny or babysitter. It acts a digital gateway so a parent can see, hear and speak to their little ones. It also doubles as a night light and music player, to help lull a baby to sleep.
Other manufacturers, including Samsung, have released security monitors in recent years that are aimed, at least in part, at keeping an eye on infants and children.
Overall, though, these kinds of devices remain a small segment within the home security systems market, which generated more than $4bn last year in the US, up from $3.5bn in 2008, according to data from the Consumer Electronics Association.
Tablets for Tots and Pre-Teens
With a built-in camera, music player and collection of interactive ebooks, Polaroid's PTAB750 looks and feels like a tablet. But this device is aimed squarely at children. The $150 durable slate includes some parent-friendly features, such as controls to enable safe online browsing, a dedicated app store for downloading child-specific content and large buttons designed for more rugged use from little fingers.
As unique as this tablet may seem, it is just one of many these days being pitched at youngsters.
On March 6, Amplify Education unveiled a tablet designed specifically for students in kindergarten through to grade 12 in the US. The Wi-Fi enabled computer, which will cost almost $300 when wrapped with a two-year subscription that runs to $99 annually, is being pushed for purchase by school districts and comes preloaded with instructional tools to help teachers deliver content to students.
LeapFrog has among the biggest collection of tablets for tots and pre-teens. It offers a couple of models for those as young as three, plus another two portable "learning game systems" for four to nine-year-olds.
The company also sells a pen-like system that helps children learn how to read, along with a version for one-year-olds - not to mention a growing group of apps and other high-tech toys that advocate "learning through play".
All told, about one in seven children between the ages of five and 15 now use a tablet at home in the United Kingdom, a threefold increase from 2011, according to a report from Ofcom, the country's communications regulator. In the US, 20 per cent of tablet-owning parents with children who are six or younger have loaned a slate to their little ones, according to a survey conducted last year by Forrester Research.
It seems the line between work and play is becoming evermore smudged.
business@thenational.ae
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
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Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
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