17th May 2004 - The handheld gaming market has suddenly become crowded. Long the sole territory of Nintendo's Game Boy line, two new handheld game consoles have been released in the past year from Nokia and Tapwave. The entire gaming world is abuzz over the late 2004 entrance into the market of Sony, with its first handheld, the PlayStation Portable (PSP). Though all three emerging handheld platforms emphasize gaming, they offer other features that make them new types of consumer convergence devices.

The Nokia N-Gage is a handheld game platform and a fully functioning GSM mobile phone, as well as a portable digital audio player and an FM radio. Its Bluetooth capability allows in-room networked gaming among several competitors. Slow initial sales and design flaws led Nokia to announce a revised version, the N-Gage QD, which should be available by June 2004 worldwide.

The Tapwave Zodiac, in addition to being a game console, is also a fully functioning PDA, a portable digital audio player, and a JPEG photo viewer. It also offers Bluetooth capability for networked gaming. Since it does not have the vast resources of its competition, Tapwave has the most difficult task in establishing its platform.

Sony created a stir in May 2003, when it announced it was entering the handheld gaming market with the PSP. Product details have been somewhat scarce from Sony, but the PSP will offer the ability to play digital audio files, and Sony is promising it will play video files as well. With embedded Wi-Fi capability, the PSP will also offer networked gaming. The PSP is scheduled to make its debut in Japan in the fourth quarter of 2004.

Casting a long shadow over the handheld market is Nintendo, the most successful company in the history of handheld games. In the face of new competition, Nintendo is not sitting still. In early 2003, it released the Game Boy Advance SP, a smaller, sleeker version of its popular predecessor. In addition, in the fourth quarter of 2004, it is scheduled to release the Nintendo Dual Screen (DS), a handheld game platform with two TFT-LCD screens to allow two different but simultaneous game perspectives.

The suddenly crowded handheld market should lead to increased shipments for the product category. According to the new In-Stat/MDR report "Emerging Handheld Game Platforms: It's Not Just Game Boy Anymore," revenues in this market should increase by over 15% per year through 2008.

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