Could Handheld Gaming Get New Competition

In the past decade the home console market has had three players that have done well in their own ways.   Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have made a lot of money selling consoles and games.  The market for portable handheld has been much different though.  Nintendo had been the 800 pound gorilla of the handheld gaming market.  It has only been in the past few years that Sony's Playstation Portable has held it's own but the overwhelming majority of the market share has belonged to Nintendo's DS system.

While the market for portable handheld video games is so much smaller than the home console market, a third player wants to put their system into the hands of gamers.  Rumours have surfaced that Panasonic is developing a handheld system called the Jungle.  Any new system Panasonic wouldn't be their first entry into gaming, the often slagged and virtually forgotten 3DO back in 1993 was Panasonic's debut in the gaming market.  The early online marketing material from Panasonic promoted the Jungle as a handheld system for online gaming.

Who exactly would be the target audience for the Jungle?  Trying to go after gamers playing on existing handhelds is probably won't be the best way to get their foot in the door and establish market share.  Going after the hard core home console gamers whose shooters have been poorly ported to handheld systems when attempts have been made to bring those games to handheld systems. 

Even though Nintendo owns the market in handheld video games there is potential for Panasonic to do well simply through the multitude home console players whose games are unrepresented on handheld systems.  Even though Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch have been seen as the third player in the handheld gaming market. 

WiMax, The Lost Potential

October 8th will be the official launch of the first WiMax service to be offered to American consumers. Subscribers in Baltimore will be the first to receive broadband using WiMax technology. While that's a good thing to see an alternative to the cable and DSL services already in place, the new entrant into market in Baltimore from the same old club of telecom companies. Sprint is the first out of the block to provide WiMax.

WiMax was seen as a techology that would allow new companies to break the cable telco broadband duopoly instead of breaking the duopoly it will only extend it to rural and remote areas that the cable and telcos couldn't justify the cost of wiring for broadband.

There would be more than enough spectrum available to allow more than one provider of WiMax service but how likely would it be that startup ISP would spend the money on WiMax knowing that their competition is both DSL and WiMax service from the big telcos and the cable modem and WiMax service from the cable companies.

In short this probably will relegate WiMax as a supplemental service for the cable and telcos, and not as a competitive technology. The greatest potential for any technology has just been lost.