The Sanyo Katana – Could a kid step on it and break it? Mine almost did!
I just got in a phone from an interesting MVNO, Kajeet. The service is aimed at kids and their parents and offers a few basic features that Mr. or Ms. Mom and Dad might like.
Kajeet currently offers the Sanyo Katana, the LG LX150 and 225, and the Nokia 6165i. Each “kit” comes with $5 airtime, some stickers, and a ham-handed attempt at sounding cool which, as far as I can tell might work on the tweens but would definitely be rumble the aesthetics of a 13-and-up.
Stickers! For your phone! Phonestickers!
The service is fairly standard. Phones range from $49.99 to $99.99 and Kajeet offers free shipping. Voice calls are 10 cents a minute and SMS messages are 5 cents each. There is a 35 cent daily usage charge, which could eat into your fun, but is offered in lieu of cancellation charges. Mobile AIM is $6.99 per month and all the standard junk like ringtones and wallpaper cost a few bucks.
Block little Johnny from calling Fiji at 3am.
The real draw, however, are the parental controls. Parents can block certain numbers, ensure that kids can only call a few pre-set numbers and not use their own “wallet,” and set blackout times for kids who might be a bit too chatty after lights out. Parents can create their own wallet to allow kids a spare bit of change if they run out of their own money and you can refill the phone online with a credit card.
The daily usage fee hurts.
Kajeet seems like an interesting marriage of hardware and software, ensuring that kids can call but not rock their parents accounts with hefty charges. Parents be warned, however. The characters and “Kajeet ROX 4U!” design is a bit cloying. I guess they focus grouped this stuff, but lines like “the cell phone 4U” made me a little woozy.
Legal stuff is hard!
My daughter was a beta tester for Kajeet. The terminology and attempts at being cool make me nuts too, but the phone service itself is clear (using the Sprint network) and the parental controls are absolutely outstanding! I would highly recommend this service. I particularly like the fact that the service supports a “real” phone, which looks just like any other cell phone. Although my daughter did put the stickers on, you don’t need to. This prevents the kid from feeling like they have a “baby phone”. They still might not like the fact that the parent has control over what numbers they call and when, but this is the only way I would allow my child to have ANY phone at this age. Again, I highly recommend it!
how old is your daughter? I saw the service as quite useful for parents but worried that the older the kid got, the less exciting the package looked. My son is 15 months so its kind of hard to ask him.
1. how would/should it be integrated with family plans offered by operators?
2. smart NOT to offer proprietary device … perhaps that was Firefly’s biggest challenge?
3. I get the service/app part, but nothing unique about the hardware. What’s the barrier to entry here?
best of luck
Mr. Biggs,
I’m a student reporter of the Winged Post Newspaper of the Harker High School in San Jose. I’m currently writing an article about Kajeet, and I was wondering if I could use the first picture (the one focusing on the cell phone) for my article. My photo deadline is this Thursday, so the sooner your reply, the better.
If you decide to grant me your permission, please send me a higher resolution file of the picture.
Thank you!
I have a couple of comments about Kajeet. First of all, I’ve been looking for a service like this for months. Not for my kids (they’re
…continued from above.
under five), but for my work. My company doesn’t provide mobile phones, but reimburses for use of a personal phone. The catch is there has to be a charge. Until Kajeet I had been unable to find a plan that offered a low monthly rate, zero free minutes, no contract and billing detail. Kajeet has all this so it fits nicely. Personally I think they could capitalize on an underserved market segment if they created a sister service, with a few more phones and features, geared towards older kids and adults.
My second comment is that if my kids WERE old enough, this is the only type of service I would allow them to have. The parental controls are great, and the wallet concept reinforces budgeting.
I also agreed to be a beta tester for Kajeet, with their Nokia phone. We live on the west coast and let my son take it on a class trip. He had service inside most monuments in DC and Gettsburg, when many of the other mainstream providers had none! Other kids wondered “what is Kajeet”… his reply was “obviously, the only one that works”. The top three reasons I continue to use this (sparingly) for my almost 13yr old are:
1. low usage fee. .35 per day or about $10 a month. .10 per minute and .05 per text.
2. Parental controls. I can block numbers, turn off texting all together, limit the times of day the phone will work….
3. Simplicity. It works, looks and functions just like everyone elses cell phone, but my secret is…. i’m paying 1/3 of what they are AND I have full control over the phone’s usage.
I just purchased the Sanyo Katana phone with Kajeet service for my 11 year old daughter and am very satisfied. She didn’t put the stickers on the phone, but loves being able to shop on the web via the phone for new ringtones, wallpapers, games etc. There is no time usage charge for getting on the web, you only pay for what you purchase. You have total control via an account you set up online. I love the fact you can control what features you want on/off and you can block calls from being made during school,hours/late at night…whenever. You can also create a contact list to allow calls to and from and a list to block certain incoming/outgoing numbers. You can set up a parent wallet and kid wallet so certain calls are paid for by you and other things are paid for by them like texting, downloads etc. I’m considering switching my 17 year old over to this service since he has blown through 600 minutes in two weeks on Tracfone sending text messages and calling day and night on it. Hats off to Sprint, Kajeet truely puts the parent in control!
Hey, I love these cells! I see their “try to be cool” looking outline in all of their things. This cell is THE cell (for some) tweens, like you said. Not older kids, 15- up. Their prices… not so good. But, I see a lot of kid friendly features that would make this a great first cell for some kids.