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The Wall Street Journal has a nice (albeit technologically simplified)
article today on Lego Mindstorms' popularity among adults.
It's not, to my knowledge available on-line, and for copyright reasons I
won't post it all here. But here's a couple of excerpts:
"In the 11-and-up demographic group, David Griffin is pretty far up: He is
a 41-year-old computer engineer, and he is part of a large group of adult
Mindstorms buyers that Lego Group AG didn't anticipate when it put the set
on the market. Surveys that Lego collects with warranty-card returns show
that nearly half of the people playing with the set are 25 to 45 years
old.
[...]
"Before Mindstorms came on the market in mid-September, Lego expected to
sell about 12,000 sets in the U.S. this year. But since it hit the shelves,
demand has been so brisk that the Danish toy giant now expects sales of
about 80,000, says John Dion, a Lego spokesman. Even with ramped-up
production, a number of retailers may not get Mindstorms in time for
Christmas.
We're still waiting for product," says John Reilly, a spokesman for
Consolidated Corp.'s K B toy chain. "I get about a dozen kids coming in
every day asking for the new Lego system," says David Hesel, owner of the
Toy Shop in Concord, Mass., who has been told along with other small
operators that he won't be getting any Mindstorms until next year.
The toy is taking on an unusual life of its own among its adult fans. On
the Internet, they trade advice about how to break down the system and
rebuild it better. Many older users are also swapping handmade programs
that supersede the kit's basic software."
And, casting aside humility for a moment: there's a few quotes from me,
which I find pretty cool.
[Followups to lugnet.robotics]
--
Matthew Miller ---> mattdm@mattdm.org
Quotes 'R' Us ---> http://quotes-r-us.org/
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: Wall Street Journal on Lego Mindstorms
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| (URL) has this article for subscribers. I found it by searching for Mindstorms. It doesn't give back a URL useful for anyone else, but others can probably the article by doing the same search. alex (26 years ago, 10-Dec-98, to lugnet.robotics)
| | | Re: Wall Street Journal on Lego Mindstorms
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| I was hoping that quote was from "our" Matthew Miller. I was hoping Lugnet might also get a plug as the place where Mindstorms "hackers" exchange tips on the WWW, but no such mention. Cool article though. -John Van (who just found out Santa will be (...) (26 years ago, 10-Dec-98, to lugnet.robotics)
| | | Re: Wall Street Journal on Lego Mindstorms
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| In article <slrn76vtf4.sa0.matt...a.bu.edu>, Matthew Miller <lugnet.robotics@lugnet.com> writes (...) Even more odd then that (URL) is pretty adult hostile. "Parent's email" in the questionnaire, and a 1924 limit on birthday! ... and how many (...) (26 years ago, 10-Dec-98, to lugnet.robotics)
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