#“Opportunity for Android Open Accessory + App Inventor to be the new Lego Mindstorms?”
Our eldest daughter will be 8 shortly. She loves Lego and also found our first App Inventor session to be pretty straightforward. One idea I came up with for her birthday present was a Lego Mindstorms kit. Then I checked the price: 279! Is Lego insane? The control box alone is 162. No wonder it's been such a flop.
I then thought maybe there are some Arduino kits or Android Open Accessory kits for younger kids but I haven't been able to find any. Even if there was, development would be in C or Java.
It strikes me that the time is ripe for a low-cost robotics kit for kids based on theAndroid Open Accessory standardthat can be controlled by Google App Inventor (it already supports Mindstorms). You can get an Android phone for 99 in the UK PAYG. Heck, you can get crappy resistive-screen Android tablets for less.
Or maybe Lego can get its head out of its ass and get back to their roots of providing useful educational toys for people of all means, not just the well-off. They should retire Mindstorms, move to an inexpensiveAndroidplatform and watch sales sky-rocket.