Click to View

The mobile gaming market is set to explode. And its not just kids shooting up aliens on handheld screens—adults are getting into the act too with their cell phones, PDAs, smartphones and "hybrid" devices like TapWave's Zodiac and Nokia's N-Gage.

A third handheld in this last category is Gizmondo from a subsidiary—also called Gizmondo—of Global Positioning System (GPS) specialist Tiger Telematics. Perhaps the most interesting feature of Gizmondo is, not surprisingly, an integrated GPS chip that provides location-based services.

As a result, Telematics said some Gizmondo games will incorporate a player's physical location into the game itself, blurring the line between play and real life. Gizmondo Acquisition Manager Mikael Astrom claims, "The GPS will do to games what 3D did, really adding that edge to what is possible. It's not all about great graphics anymore."

In addition to GPS, Gizmondo runs on Microsoft Windows CE.NET and is powered by a Samsung ARM9 400MHz processor that incorporates a 64-bit graphics accelerator. It boasts a smallish 2.8-inch color screen.

In addition to gaming, Gizmondo can serve as a MP3 music player, MPEG4 movie player and a digital camera. Users can also send multimedia messages over a GPRS network, which also allows for wide area network gaming. So you can play games against other Gizmondo owners around the world.

Integrated Bluetooth lets you play games wirelessly too, except in this case the players are in the same room. 64MB of on-bard storage comes courtesy of M-Systems' mDiskOnChip solution. And a Secure Digital slot delivers memory and peripheral expansion.

Gizmondo should hit store shelves in Europe late in the fourth quarter and land on U.S. shores early next year. It will cost between $300 and $400.

Other Developments in Mobile Gaming

The Game Initiative, a producer of conferences and events for the computer and video game industry, is holding a conference, aptly titled the Mobile Game Conference, devoted to the mobile gaming market. The Mobile Game Conference will coincide with its established Austin Game Conference, scheduled for September 9-10 in Austin, Texas. (see Trend-Savvy Promoter Launches Mobile Gaming Conference)

Sony attracted a lot of attention at E3 when it announced it would enter the niche currently dominated by Nintendo's GameBoy with Sony PlayStation Portable. Not to be outdone, Nintendo has a new device codenamed DS that features two displays up its sleeve.

Nokia's "hybrid" N-Gage smartphone received lukewarm sales and negative reviews when it was released late last year. And while a new model, N-Gage QD, is a big improvement, it still lacks in significant areas (read our review). Tapwave's Zodiac, an excellent gaming handheld (read our review), could only be bought from the company's website until recently, limiting its exposure.

All three major portable operating systems, Symbian, Windows Mobile and Palm, have been updated this year with one of the chief goals being the creation of mobile devices that deliver better audio, video and gaming.