App Watch: PBS Sees Potential in iPhone as Children’s Toy

For many kids growing up in a world of gadgets, Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone is little more than a cool toy.

Never mind the price tag or the fact that the phone helped revolutionize mobile devices. Kids like to poke around on the screen and watch animation. And many parents have found that the gadget can be a great diversion, if they can get over their fear of their children breaking the device.

A whole category of applications has sprung up for very young children who play on mobile gadgets. And PBS Kids, the children’s division of the Public Broadcasting System, is aiming to do for this medium what it did with educational programming on television.

“Our specialty has always been in informal education,” said Lesli Rotenberg, the senior vice president of children’s media at PBS. “We can make a really big difference even when kids aren’t in school.”

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