Reflections: Gizmondo today is no more
April 16, 2006 [General] | By Edward J. R.
Formerly very flashy shop of Gizmondo located on the renown Regent street in London, UK (weak attempt to imitate Apple Corporation and their shop on the same street) is now in process of liquidation - similarly like the whole Gizmondo company (photo taken yesterday):
The same shop looked previously much differently - a Gizmondo flag waving, mini-car with advertisement, big flashy presentations:
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Gizmondo - known also as Tiger Telematics - a British company that tried to release a mobile gaming console based on Windows CE - has gone bankrupt with big debt (over 200 million USD) and is no more, so let's take a look "postmortem" what went wrong and what others (i.e. other manufacturers producing hardware based on Microsoft mobile software) can learn from it:
- Gizmondo was based on Windows CE operating system that is a basis on which Windows Mobile is built and operating system used in many industrial applications. What went wrong: standard OS like Windows Mobile Pocket PC should be used because it offers already a lot of software, also games, and extending existing games for Pocket PC to new features of Gizmondo would be much easier than making wholly new games. Another example of this mistake: Microsoft's own Portable Media Center (PMC) platform that is based also on Windows CE, doesn't offer Pocket PC or MS Smartphone compatibility (although Microsoft calls it "Windows Mobile" sometimes).
- Gizmondo device had GPRS connectivity but no ability to make phone calls. What went wrong: artificially limiting features of the device is always sooner or later striking back. Another example of this mistake: lack of A2DP (stereo audio over Bluetooth) in several Windows Mobile phones manufactured by HTC although this feature is available as integral part of Windows Mobile operating system. Yet another example of this mistake: Microsoft's own Portable Media Center (PMC) platform that is based also on Windows CE, but doesn't allow execution of 3rd party programs - Microsoft thinks that it knows better what users need or don't need and says that PMC are for video and audio playback and not for running programs. Unfortunately Microsoft doesn't fire people for mistakes, so Microsoft employees just repeat blindly marketing mantra and are still claiming that it is good that PMC is so limited.
- Gizmondo was equipped in Bluetooth for near-range gaming but lacked Wi-Fi. With Wi-Fi many things become possible like for example Skype (Gizmondo had 400 MHz processor so it could handle Skype only if it would have Wi-Fi). Another example of this mistake: lack of built-in Wi-Fi in some contemporary Windows Mobile phones.
- TV-out socket was missing in Gizmondo. It would be useful in a gaming console anyway and it is available nowadays in various mobile phones even (for example: from Samsung). Another example of this mistake: lack of TV-out in HTC Universal.
- wrong business model: business model of Gizmondo in big part was based on "Smart Ads" where users were supposed to be able to purchase Gizmondo cheaper in return for agreement on watching advertisements while gaming. Obviously users don't like watching advertisements if they pay for something. Another example of this mistake: some vendors of Windows Mobile phones try to sell them through exotic distribution channels instead of striking a deals with mobile operators (i.e. wireless carriers) and some other vendors have unrealistic business models based one and only one feature - see example of big failure of Voq smartphone from Sierra Wireless, where flippable QWERTY keyboard was presented as the biggest invention since slice bread, but the rest of the phone was missing the point - not even Bluetooth was available. Lesson: don't base business model on one method or feature only but try to address maximally broad spectrum of users (example: if a phone has TMC then put also FM radio program - don't assume that it is only for businessmen, who don't care about radio).
Conclusion: everybody expects that Microsoft itself will release sooner or later a portable gaming console (portable Xbox?) - something that Gizmondo could be - but we are afraid that instead of releasing a fully compatible Pocket PC device with boosted graphics capabilities it will be again a proprietary device, which will repeat mistakes of Gizmondo. Please note that Microsoft's Xbox business is in red for years (over 1 billion of loss, some people say: even 4-5 billions possible) and that release of Sony PlayStation 3 may prevent Microsoft from achieving profitability in Xbox ever! Devices like mobile gaming console Sony PSP are however already wildly popular and profitable. Mobile gaming console market is a tough market where only major players like Nintendo and Sony can have any chances, so instead of expecting "Xbox mobile" that would repeat mistakes of Gizmondo, Microsoft should just convince partners to build a gaming devices fully compatible with Windows Mobile (for Pocket PC) that would preserve existing features rather than proposing wholly new device.
Anyway: Gizmondo is history. Wild success of Apple iPod and huge success of Sony PSP mean that Microsoft is compelled to release new mobile platforms for gaming and multimedia. The question is: will Microsoft and its partners learn anything from the failure of Gizmondo?
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