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World :: Toys R Us To Launch 'Kid Safe' Tablet

Toys R Us has confirmed the imminent release in America of its child-friendly rival to the market-leading iPad.

The device, called tabeo, will be available from October 21 and will cost $150 (€117).

The seven-inch tablet, using Wi-Fi and running on the Android operating system, includes 50 free, pre-installed apps specifically designed for children.

Toys R Us Vice President Troy Peterson said: "Over the past year, we've spent considerable time talking to parents and children to determine what features and functions they really want in a kids' tablet, resulting in tabeo.

"We are proud that tabeo offers robust and flexible parental controls that can help protect children as they surf the Internet, and we are pleased to offer the tabeo App Store, which features only kid-safe content carefully curated by the Toys R Us team."

The device has preloaded a number of books, educational programs and games.

Apple's iPad has about two-thirds of the global market for tablets, and the company is expected to introduce a smaller version of it later this year.

Amazon, which introduced three new versions of its Kindle Fire last week, claims to have 22% of the US market.

Microsoft is launching its Surface tablet in October, and a variety of others on the market use the Google Android operating system.