the ikids blog

APP REVIEW: Ella the Elephant

Let me start with this: Ella The Elephant has beautiful illustrations. The app is a kids book that centers around a lovable elephant and her animal friends.

Let me also say this — Ella can sing. And scat. And so can her friends. As someone with a passion for music, it’s hard not to like an app that features some great jazz. Ella’s spirit throughout the story is also easy to admire: she rallies her buddies together to make some great music. Who can argue with that?

Still, I do have some concerns about this app. First off, being forced to watch a couple of ads every time the app starts up just doesn’t sit well with me. I understand that this is common practice on many kids DVDs — but it’s not how I hope educational content will evolve as it transitions on to a mobile device. I also understand — as an app developer — the desire to recover the costs invested in producing content like this. It’s not easy, it’s not cheap, and it’s natural to want to cross-promote other products. But there’s a way to do that elegantly and this just feels too “hard sell” to me.

My other primary concern with this app is that it under-utilizes the potential of the iPhone platform. Interactivity is an unbelievably powerful way to engage kids in the learning process. Unfortunately, this app doesn’t take advantage of that opportunity — essentially it is a video packaged up as an app. Again — it is beautifully illustrated with great music — but in my mind, it’s a video – not an app. Which would be reasonable if I were searching for kids vids on YouTube, but this experience costs $2.99 in the app store. At that price point, I expect more.

Perhaps that is harsh — my daughter does like Ella. But she also likes it when we search for Cookie Monster on YouTube – and that’s free.

Bottom line? Try the lite version of the app first and see if this your sort of thing. You can get it free here.

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