Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

When one of the Newsweek editors put his dreads on the line against J Allard’s sure bet that the PSP would crash and burn at launch, N’Gai Croal, Technology Editor for Newsweek, received assurances from Kutaragi himself that his 6-year-old dreads would be quite safe.

The terms were that if the PSP sold 10 million units in the first twelve months, matching the performance of the PS2 in it’s first twelve months, J Allard would wear a dreads wig during the entire month of May 2006, including the week of E3. If the PSP failed to meet this target, Croal would shave his head. I suspect he would also change his name to N Croal.

Unfortunately for J Allard, the PSP did sell 10 million units in its first TEN months. However, no dreads were to be seen as far as the media eye could see. What’s the matter James? Why no dreads?

Dreads or not, J Allard is easily my favorite marketing guy ever. And J Allard’s declaration at the time, contrasted against Microsoft’s new Zune, is just too funny.

“There’s already a ‘Walkman of the 21st Century,” said Allard in a shot at Sony’s aspirations. “It’s the iPod.” He went on to attack the PSP’s multimedia ambitions, insisting that standalone devices were much better than multi-function ones; that a portable DVD player, an iPod and a Game Boy Advance would be far better at movies, music and games, respectively, than the Jack-of-all-trades PSP. When we politely but firmly disagreed with his analysis, he wrapped up our chat by declaring, “You can sell 500,000 units of anything!” Meaning that the PSP wouldn’t sell much more than a piddling half-mil.

Interesting. So, how well is the Zune going to do, again?

For the whole story, I highly recommend N’Gai Croal’s blog.