|
|
| Playing all Around |
September 13, 2003 |
By Peter Wolchak
Computers and games have been together for a long time. Most sources say the first game was created in 1958 by Willy Higinbotham, a researcher at the Brookhaven National Lab in New York. The game employed an upside-down T with a dot that bounced like a tennis ball under the influence of gravity. The game was played on an oscilloscope.
The first commercially successful video game was, of course, Pong, which bounced onto the scene around 1972. The ’70s and ’80s were the heyday of dim, noisy arcades, which then gave rise to the home game console. From there PCs jumped into the driver’s seat, and currently a new generation of consoles is vying for the home-gamer’s heart.
But since 1958 gamers had to go to the game, whether it was in a lab, arcade or living room. Now games can be played wherever the gamer happens to be.
The B.C. Institute of Technology (BCIT) and students from South Korea’s Chonbuk National University are working on a system that will allow players to compete on wireless devices such as cellphones. The first target is a chess game for phones.
And the stakes are significant. BCIT said the world market for mobile gaming will be approximately US$17.5 billion by 2006.
“Imagine two world-renowned chess masters, one in Russia and the other in the U.S., who want to play a game on their mobile phones,” Dr. Benjamin Yu, computer systems technology program head at BCIT, said in a statement. “While the number of players is small, the number of spectators who may want to watch and follow the game may be huge.”
And Nokia recently showcased the mobile N-Gage game deck. It’s a handheld gaming console, mobile phone, PDA, FM radio and a digital music player. It also links players locally via Bluetooth wireless technology or through mobile networks.
No price has been set and it should be available in Q4 2003. And the big news on the cellphone front will be Java games.
Rogers AT&T customers, for example, can now play NHL PowerShot Hockey, Crosswords2Go, Tournament Darts, Beach Volleyball, Log Jam and others. Adding Java makes these apps more action-filled and interactive than are current games.
LOOKING FOR TUNES, PICS, E-MAIL? LOOK FOR A PDA
On the surface of it there’s a lot going on in the PDA (personal digital assistant) market: new manufacturers, built-in cameras, voice-enabled units, multimedia goodies, and on and on.
But apparently that’s not enough for a lot of buyers. Worldwide PDA shipments are down and the industry analysts at IDC point to a lack
of innovation as the cause.
IDC announced in July that worldwide handheld shipments for the second quarter dropped 10.7 per cent to 2.27 million units, compared to a year ago. There is a core of users out there who love PDAs and they will continue to buy the devices, IDC said, but the larger business and consumer community simply does not see a compelling reason to drop dollars to grab a handheld.
So what will it take to convince the non-believers? According to Samuel Yip, product manager for the CLIÉ handheld at Sony of Canada, people buy handhelds for three reasons: personal productivity apps, multimedia features like photos and videos, and the still-emerging world of PDA/cellphone combo devices.
Driving value in those three areas will convince people to buy, Yip said. “If we can offer a product that meets those three values…
then that is the only way to make our business grow.”
IDC reports that Sony recently lost the number two spot in worldwide PDA shipments. Palm shipped 903,096 units in the second quarter, grabbing a 39.9 per cent market share. HP was in second with 16.8 per cent of the market, Sony got 11.3 per cent, Dell was in fourth with 6.7 per cent and Toshiba rounded out the pack at number five with 3.3 per cent of the market.
And it is likely Palm will hold on to its pre-eminence, according to Rebecca Mackinlay, associate director of data product development at Bell Mobility.
“Will Pocket PCs ever catch up to Palm? Probably not. There is no $99 Pocket PC but Palm has such a range of devices—from the $99 solution to the Cadillac in the Sony CLIÉ—and given that broad market, Palm will probably remain the leader.”
The good news for handheld manufacturers is that PDAs are not simply a fading fad, said IDC Canada senior telecom analyst Warren Chaisatien. “Going forward I think this is a growth market.
We may not see growth in the traditional PDA form factor, but the converged market—the cellphone/PDA combo—could see a lot of growth.”
|
|
|
| Top 300 Issue |
 
|
| Gadget of the Week (Canadian) |
|
Boost your cell
ARC Wireless Freedom Blade
Mobile data and voice are great, as long as the signal is strong. And while mobile networks are pretty good these days, road warriors quickly discover that dead zones still exist.
more>>
|
| Gadget of the Week (Japanese) |
Sounds of Japan
Why record just the visual when you can capture the sounds as well.
more>> |
| Backblog RSS feed |
Click to subscribe  |
|
sponsored by 
