Moss Technology (Substitute Page)

The latest rumors and speculations point towards a new portable gaming system from Microsoft under the XBOX gaming name. The chance is high since both Sony and Nintendo already have their own portable gaming systems out on the market, Playstation Portable and Nintendo DS, respectively. Microsoft as already made two moderately sucessful consoles, the Xbox and its sucessor the Xbox 360. Out of three major console companies, Microsoft is the only one that doesn't have a portable console on the scene. Team Xbox makes its case for a portable Xbox system and how the device might look.

Team Xbox envisions a system with a QWERTY keyboard, directional pad, trackball and four action buttons (concept design above). The Xbox Portable (XP) might look like the T-Mobile Sidekick 3 (below). As for the cpu, it's a toss up between Transmeta's Efficeon and Intel's procs. When it comes to mobile and handheld devices; low power consumption, small size, and low cost are key factors. There’s a company that has specialized in the development of advanced microprocessors that are excellent at accomplishing the aforementioned things. That company is Transmeta. The gpu is basically decided, the NVIDIA GoForce 5500 handheld gpu spanks everything that ATI throws at it. The list of specs of this little wonder is simply outstanding for a handheld graphics processor. The graphics are on par with the Xbox 360, and are far superior to the graphics used by the PSP and the DS.



No matter how good the hardware is, the fate of the final product rests on the software. SOFTWARE. Not the hardware, this is why the PSP with all its advanced hardware couldn't dethrone Nintendo from its postion as the portable handheld ruler. Even though the PSP had a slew of features it never had any good titles. That’s why the Nintendo DS is giving the PlayStation Portable a run for its money. Furthermore, the Nintendo DS became America's top-selling video game system of any type in June, and the new Super Mario Bros. grabbed the No. 1 spot on the U.S. video game sales chart in June for the second month in a row with 453,000 units sold. As for pricing, Microsoft has to walk a fine line with the XP. Nintendo’s DS is sitting on store shelves for $129 while Sony’s PSP retails for $199. Microsoft would be wise to price its unit between those two price points or not to far above the PSP’s price of entry to capture the attention of gamers. Special thanks to Dailytech and Team Xbox

Posted by tlmoss on Monday, July 31, 2006 at 5:33 PM | Permalink