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Originally Posted by grapeape
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Ever wonder MS didnt go for the throat with a handheld after the Xbox overtook the gamecube? Many belive that MS has a long term strategy to completely dominate the handheld market by slowly evolving the pocket pc to an all in one device. I think thats the main reason we are seeing companies like EA trying to make small footholds in the market already.
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I think a much stronger trend, and a smarter strategy for M$, is their migration towards PDA-like smart phones. PDA sales as a percentage of the overall handheld market are basically nonexistant, and PDAs as a concept have not been as susccesful as you might think. Palm, the market leader, is basically a sinking ship that is scrambling to maintain a viable business model. This is why so many players (sony, toshiba, sharp, fujitsu, etc.) either never entered, or have recently exited, the US market for PDAs. Smart phone sales, on the other hand, are taking off like a rocket, and this is where the market is headed. 3D graphics accelerators on future smart phones is virtually guranteed.
I see little evidence that microsoft is going to position traditional PPCs with windows mobile as a platform for handheld gaming. If they want to sell a machine for gaming, it will look
nothing like PPCs today, and run something very different than windows mobile. The nice new crop of high-end handhelds such as the X50V, hx4700, and Tungsten T5 are certainly not positioned towards gaming, they cost way too much. I read a while back that the crappy Zire (perhaps the Zire 21?) has sold more units than
all other palms combined, ever, due to its low price point. Make no mistake, a shiny new PDA with a graphics accelerator that costs $500+ is being bought primarily by business users who care nothing about games. M$ would have to sell their hardware at a loss, something that only barely worked with the XBox, and they could easily follow the fate of Nokia and their disastrous NGage. It's a risky high-stakes business for sure!