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Version History · October 2026
Pierce is telling the story of LeapFrog's LeapPad, an education-only tablet pitched as the cheap, sturdy alternative to the iPad. What killed it, in his account, wasn't a rival kids' product but the hand-me-down iPad.
like
that.
But their big idea here, and they actually, they sort of pit this thing against the iPad. They're like, you don't want a general purpose, really expensive, really breakable tablet. You want a tablet. Everybody agrees tablets are awesome that's for education. And this kind of works. It costs $100. That ends up being really important. They sell a few million of them. Like, it definitely counts as a hit. But then the most interesting thing happens, which is everybody who bought an iPad buys a new iPad and they get their old iPad to their kid. And that absolutely kills the Leap Pad.
I remember the Leap Pad. That was very popular for my daughter's age group. It
was. It definitely, it had a real moment for sure. It, I think, got lapped by the iPad, which got a bunch of educational software, which started to be used in schools, which got a million immediate cheaper competitors, even as sort of general purpose tablets. And I think LeapPad just never, never…
Turning a page in a book, I think they want the kids to experience that.