Save your money.
I was listening to the local NPR program (Talk) the other day. They had the author of the book -- the Power of Play. In France, they begin to teach reading in preschool. In most Scandinavian countries they don't start teaching until the children are about 6. France has a reading problem with about 30% of their kids. Scandinavia has no literacy problems. The lesson? Children will read when they're ready. The author contends that teaching children these things before they are developmentally ready is a big mistake and can actually hinder them down the road. There's another book called, Einstein didn't use Flash Cards (or something like that) that might be interesting too.
I've seen the videos they have on their website showing a child who can "read". I don't know, I think that again, this is fear tactic marketing at work. If you don't get your toddler to read, how will she compete in pre-K?? I have a friend who's 7 yr old is autistic. He reads, but what does that mean? He doesn't really understand one word of any of it. I would think that this type of reading is the similar to what they're promoting.
If you want your child to have a good start and best chance academically, turn off your tv. Read to your child. Take him for walks outside and talk about what you see. Let him play with his toys and discover things on his own imho. There's a lot of debate over it all I realize; however, you have to ask yourself -- did Bill Gate's parents use flash cards? Did Thomas Jefferson's parents use Baby Einstein? My point being, no they didn't and there isn't a shred of evidence that any of these things work.
A while back, a Canadian news show did an interview with one of the Baby Einstein execs that shows, in my mind, that they're just trying to take your $$. It's probably still on the web too. We parents are a good target for these companies. We want the best for our kids so we'll seek this stuff out.