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Hand-Held game player hits stores

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CIOL Bureau
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NEW YORK: Educational toy maker LeapFrog Enterprises Inc, looking to boost sales and tap the important holiday shopping season, launched its key hand-held game-player.



The company's Leapster product, aimed at giving parents an alternative to Nintendo's GameBoy system, is a device that plays educational games and interactive videos. It is the final product in LeapFrog's roll-out for the holiday season. LeapFrog said overall orders were shipping in line with expectations, but declined to provide specific figures.



The Emeryville, California-based company said that several major retailers postponed orders to keep their inventories down, but expected to make up the lost business in the fourth quarter. Wood declined to comment directly on whether the missing sales had materialized so far in the fourth quarter, but told Reuters the company is "shipping at a plan consistent with what was expected."



LeapFrog's product launch was held at Toys R Us in New York City's Times Square and as part of the arrangement the retailer gets exclusive rights to sell Leapsters for 10 to 14 days, a store spokeswoman said.



LeapFrog hopes the Leapster will compete with Nintendo Co. Ltd's hand-held system GameBoy, which has the overwhelming share of the market. LeapFrog said its system will give parents an educational alternative for portable gameplay.



"A half a million GameBoys were sold last year for kids in the 3-1/2 to 6-1/2 year old age group, but try to get them to admit that in a focus group," Tim Bender, president of LeapFrog's global consumer division told Reuters in a recent interview. "This is a completely untapped market."



Academy Award winning actress Marcia Gay Harden was also at the Leapster event, and presented $125,000 worth of LeapFrog's LeapTrack systems for five New York City public schools.



The Leapster is selling for $79.99, Toys R Us hopes to sell out, but the spokeswoman acknowledged that the higher price point might make sales slower than with a lower-priced item.



Nintendo's GameBoy hand-held players sells for $99. Wood said the company worked on developing the Leapster for nearly two years, and expects holiday sales of the item to be brisk. Game cartridges for Leapster are sold separately.



"We can't make as many as we'd like," Wood said. "And if there is a shortage of the Leapster at holiday time, there are lots of other great LeapFrog products parents can buy."



The company's core product is LeapPad, a junior-sized laptop that teaches spelling, reading, math and phonics to children. It recently introduced an updated version, LeapPad Plus Writing, as well as a LeapPad platform called Little Touch, made for very young children to use with adult help.

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