Dell and Nickelodeon launch 'slime' netbooks for kids

At a press event in New York City this week, Dell and two partners rolled out a new product that will compete in the home market versus kids' netbooks slated for release this fall by Eee maker Asus and Disney.

The upcoming Dell Inspiron Mini Nickelodeon Edition is based on a low-end, slimmed down version of Dell's current Mini 10 netbook, known internally as a "bear" edition, noted Bill Holden, a Dell product management executive, speaking with Betanews at the event.

But the new netbook will be more than a "toy," said Leigh Ann Brodsky, president of Nickelodeon and Viacom Consumer Products. Targeted at home use as a "secondary PC," the product will feature parental controls devised by Dell, along with Nickelodeon-branded wallpaper, icons, and Web portals; bundled security software from McAfee; and an icon linking to Whyville.net, an educationally oriented virtual world created by Numedeon mainly for eight-to-15-year-olds.

Although the first release of the new netbook will run Windows XP, Dell and its partners Nickelodeon and Numedeon, Inc. expect to add Linux as an alternative in the next iteration, according to Holden.

Dell is using Nickelodeon's "slime" as one product design theme, but other designs will include Nickelodeon properties iCarly and SpongeBob SquarePants. The three companies are also looking at collaborating on netbooks for the school market, Holden told Betanews.

Also this week, wire reports surfaced that the city of Portland, Maine, is weighing the purchase of 2,200 Dell netbooks for high-school students, at a total cost of $1.1 million, in place of the originally planned but more costly Apple iBooks. If the Dell deal is approved by the local school board, students will get the netbooks in October.

At the event in Manhattan on Tuesday night, James B. Bower, chairman and "chief visionary officer" of Numedeon, confirmed to Betanews that his company has been talking with Dell about the prospect of working together in the education market.

Other organizations already active in the school netbook space include Intel, with its Classmate; and One Laptop Per Child (OLPC).

Dell plans to start selling the new netbooks for home use in October, at Wal-Mart stores and on Walmart.com. Pricing hasn't yet been announced.

Also at the New York City press event, Dell previewed Microsoft's Windows 7 running on one of its Adamo PC notebooks.