Does Gizmondo Have a Chance?

[adolescent]

First off, show of hands...  Who has heard of Gizmondo?

www.gizmondo.com



Gizmondo is a new handheld game (and email/camera/gps/mp3 & video player/etc.) system from Tiger Telematics.  The system does just about everything, and the specs look very promising (400MHz ARM9 CPU, Nvidia GoForce 3D 4500 GPU, 2.8" 240x320 TFT, etc.).  Even the game lineup isn't bad.  Heck, they have Carmaggedon. :-D

But who will buy it?  

(I'm going to make a point to check one out tomorrow on it's release date...  but, I just bought a Gameboy Micro so I'll have to really be impressed to spend more $$$ this month...)

[Cyberus]

Looks neat

I think in this market manufacturers have to do a lot to convince people to buy...
Will kids instead opt for PSP, Nintendo DS or whatever its called, while the adults opt for iPAQs etc...?

[adolescent]

BTW, the price looks decent for what you get (provided it all works, and works well).

$229 for base unit with Smart Adds*
$499 for base unit with GPS Navigation package and Smart Adds*

The catch:

Smart Adds are directed video advertisements sent out via GPRS.  So, owners will have to sit through commercials.  :-D  Although, they are limiting the number of adds to 3 a day.

[adolescent]

@Cyberus

That's what I was thinking.  I'm trying to figure out if they're trying to market this as a game system (where it will be killed), or as an electronic swiss army knife (where there might not be much of a market).

At the very least it's much more promising than the Nokia N-Gage.

[Dan]

adolescent wrote:
First off, show of hands...  Who has heard of Gizmondo?

Shouldnt the question be Who has laughed at Gizmondo?
IS it still locked against third party software? :crazy:

[Dan]

It´s nothing against the real thing! :-D
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS3181126600.html

[adolescent]

@Dan

I assume by 3rd party you mean homebrew (there are licensed 3rd parties, EA, SCI, etc.).  But yes, I expect it to be.

The GPX2 looks really good.  But, are they going to market it outside of Asia?  That's the problem I had with the GP32.  That and all of the 3rd parties dropped off really early.  Although, the homebrew market picked up the slack.

[Cyberus]

.

[iamaboringperson]

I probably wouldn't buy one.

I think I'd rather a PSP.

[Dan]

If it can´t run unlicensed software then it loses the advantage of using WinCE as it´s os. It loses the enormous softwarebase thats the aadvantage of running WinCE.
Then I´m better off with a regular PocketPC PDA and a gamepad add on. Can get both keyboard, mouse and full-VGA too with a real pocketpc.

The GP2x has the advantage of tv-out, linux and realizes that the homebrewers and emulatorcoders are allies not enemies.

Both loses to PSP or DS that have the advantage of commercial games and largest userbases.

I can´t think of why anyone would want a Gizmondo it sucks as a phone, suck as handheld game, there is better gpses out there if you really need one, suck as a pda.

[Cyberus]

This is also often the problem with newer mobile phones. I'm all for multi-function devices, but the problem is always that say with a mobile, it's great for making calls, but a camera phone has a crap camera.
I don't want a phone that takes pictures, I use my much better quality cameras for that. I just want a phone that makes calls. Multi-function devices will only be good when every component is a usable one, instead of a gimmic or an afterthought tacked onto another device.
(MP3 players and cameras currently part of cellphones for example).

Perhaps what Dan has just said could be explained as if you try and do many things, you run the risk of accomplishing none of them effectively, and just fall between many stalls.... 'Jack of all trades, master of none'

[jkirk]

after reading this i'd say no chance.

Gizmondo Review