Gizmondo
Encyclopedia
The Gizmondo is a handheld gaming console which was released by Tiger Telematics
in March 2005. The electronics design was undertaken by Plextek Limited
and the industrial design by Rick Dickinson
.
With fewer than 25,000 units sold, the Gizmondo was named by GamePro
as the worst selling handheld console in history. By February 2006, the company discontinued the device and was forced into bankruptcy
. In 2008, founder and CEO Carl Freer
announced that he had reached an agreement with the liquidators, and planned to re-launch Gizmondo as Gizmondo 2.
Gizmondo was overshadowed by the involvement of one of its executives, Stefan Eriksson
, in organized crime
. It was never released in Japan or Australia.
on 19 March 2005, initially priced at £229. Units enabled with "Smart Adds" had a reduced RRP
of £129. The Gizmondo was available from the Gizmondo flagship store on London
's Regent Street
, via Gizmondo's online shop, and other high-street and online retailers such as Argos
, Dixons, Currys
, John Lewis
, although it was never clear how many units were actually introduced into those retail channels.
in the late Summer of 2005, with both "Smart Adds" and normal units available. Rather than opening flagship stores, the manufacturer relied on established retailers such as Webhallen. Fewer than 100 units were sold in Sweden. "Smart Adds" were never enabled for the Swedish market, even though the technology "was there".
, the Gizmondo launched on October 22, 2005. Retail price was $400
for a unit without "Smart Adds", or $229 for a "Smart Adds" enabled device. It was available only through Gizmondo’s website or at one of several kiosks located in shopping malls. However, only 8 of the planned 14 game
s were ever released in the U.S., along with no CoPilot GPS software, though the software was sold on the British
site for a week or two. There was little to no advertising
, and some of their advertising was even put in magazines of Nintendo Power
(Nintendo
's official magazine). Plans to distribute the handheld through other retailers never materialized.
's FIFA Football 2005
and SSX 3
, and SCi
's Richard Burns Rally
. A further 30 titles were known to have been in development for the system, but all were canceled before their release due to Tiger Telematics' bankruptcy.
of the unit. The apparent misspelling of the name was intentional and a trademark and company name were registered in the UK as "Smart Adds", though even Tiger Telematics occasionally slipped up and referred to it as Smart Ads in their publicity material. A "Smart Adds"-enabled Gizmondo cost less (£129
/$229), but would display advertisements on the Gizmondo's screen at random intervals when the user entered the Home
screen on the device. These advertisements would be downloaded via the device's GPRS data connection, and would be targeted
based on data inputted to the device. A maximum of three ads would be shown per day. Some ads would include special offers in the form of vouchers or barcodes, and some would utilize the device's GPS system to direct users to the nearest store carrying the advertised product.
'
However, the "Smart Adds" service was never activated, and users who paid the reduced price for a "Smart Adds"-enabled device did not receive any advertisements through their device.
and TV-out support. The widescreen Gizmondo was announced just a few weeks before the U.S. launch of the Gizmondo, possibly prompting some potential customers to not buy the Gizmondo, and instead wait for the improved model, in an example of the Osborne effect
.
announced in early 2008 his intention to relaunch the Gizmondo console as the Gizmondo 2.
The original planned launch date was May 2008, but this was quickly pushed back to November 2008, along with details of a new company, Media Power, behind the launch, headed by Carl Freer and his Swedish partner Mikael Ljungman
, with development apparently proceeding according to the new schedule at least until September. By December 2008, the console had still not appeared, and another announcement was made about a complete redesign as a Windows CE or Google Android powered smart phone.
Since then, the Media Power website has gone offline, co-founder Mikael Ljungman has been arrested and convicted of serious fraud, and nothing more has been announced about the console or smart phone. The Gizmondo 2 was abandoned because Tiger Telematics went bankrupt when the Gizmondo was discontinued.
Tiger Telematics
Tiger Telematics or Tiger, was a Swedish electronics company, best known for the failed Gizmondo handheld game console.-History:In 2000, Carl Freer formed Eagle Eye Scandinavian, a small electronics distribution business in Sweden...
in March 2005. The electronics design was undertaken by Plextek Limited
Plextek Limited
Plextek Limited is an electronics design house based in the Cambridge area. It specialises in product and systems design for communications, automotive, aerospace, defence and medical applications.-Areas of activity:*RF*Microwave engineering...
and the industrial design by Rick Dickinson
Rick Dickinson
Rick Dickinson is a British industrial designer.-Early life:Dickinson graduated from Newcastle Polytechnic in 1979 with a First Class Bachelor of Arts Honours degree in Design for Industry. The 'Design for Industry' degree was the first of its kind, formerly a three-year 'Industrial Design' degree...
.
With fewer than 25,000 units sold, the Gizmondo was named by GamePro
GamePro
GamePro Media was a United States gaming media company publishing online and print content on the video game industry, video game hardware, and video game software developed for a video game console , a computer, and/or a mobile device . GamePro Media properties include GamePro magazine and...
as the worst selling handheld console in history. By February 2006, the company discontinued the device and was forced into bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
. In 2008, founder and CEO Carl Freer
Carl Freer
Carl Johan Freer is a Swedish businessman and technology entrepreneur.-Business activities:Freer founded Gizmondo in 2002, and was Chairman of the board of directors at Gizmondo Europe until he resigned his position in October 2005....
announced that he had reached an agreement with the liquidators, and planned to re-launch Gizmondo as Gizmondo 2.
Gizmondo was overshadowed by the involvement of one of its executives, Stefan Eriksson
Stefan Eriksson
Bo Stefan M. Eriksson is a Swedish criminal from Uppsala involved in the UK gaming company Gizmondo until it became insolvent in 2005. In 2006 he became known for wrecking an Enzo Ferrari in southern California, USA...
, in organized crime
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
. It was never released in Japan or Australia.
United Kingdom
Gizmondo was released in the United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
on 19 March 2005, initially priced at £229. Units enabled with "Smart Adds" had a reduced RRP
Suggested retail price
The manufacturer's suggested retail price , list price or recommended retail price of a product is the price which the manufacturer recommends that the retailer sell the product. The intention was to help to standardise prices among locations...
of £129. The Gizmondo was available from the Gizmondo flagship store on London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
's Regent Street
Regent Street
Regent Street is one of the major shopping streets in London's West End, well known to tourists and Londoners alike, and famous for its Christmas illuminations...
, via Gizmondo's online shop, and other high-street and online retailers such as Argos
Argos (retailer)
Argos is the largest general-goods retailer in the United Kingdom and Ireland with over 800 stores. It is unique amongst major retailers in the UK in that it is a catalogue merchant...
, Dixons, Currys
Currys
Currys is an electrical retailer in the United Kingdom and Ireland and is owned by Dixons Retail plc. It specialises in selling home electronics and household appliances, with 295 superstores and 73 high street stores...
, John Lewis
John Lewis (department store)
-Recent developments:In June 2004, John Lewis announced plans to open its first store in Northern Ireland at the Sprucefield Park development, the province's largest out of town shopping centre, located outside Lisburn and from Belfast. The application was approved in June 2005 and the opening of...
, although it was never clear how many units were actually introduced into those retail channels.
Sweden
Gizmondo was launched in SwedenSweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
in the late Summer of 2005, with both "Smart Adds" and normal units available. Rather than opening flagship stores, the manufacturer relied on established retailers such as Webhallen. Fewer than 100 units were sold in Sweden. "Smart Adds" were never enabled for the Swedish market, even though the technology "was there".
United States
In the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the Gizmondo launched on October 22, 2005. Retail price was $400
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
for a unit without "Smart Adds", or $229 for a "Smart Adds" enabled device. It was available only through Gizmondo’s website or at one of several kiosks located in shopping malls. However, only 8 of the planned 14 game
Game
A game is structured playing, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more often an expression of aesthetic or ideological elements...
s were ever released in the U.S., along with no CoPilot GPS software, though the software was sold on the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
site for a week or two. There was little to no advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
, and some of their advertising was even put in magazines of Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power magazine is a monthly news and strategy magazine formerly published in-house by Nintendo of America, but now run independently. As of issue #222 , Nintendo contracted publishing duties to Future US, the U.S. subsidiary of British publisher Future.The first issue published was...
(Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
's official magazine). Plans to distribute the handheld through other retailers never materialized.
Games
The Gizmondo launched with a line-up of fourteen titles, including a port of EAElectronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
's FIFA Football 2005
FIFA Football 2005
FIFA Football 2005, also known as FIFA Soccer 2005, FIFA 2005 or simply FIFA 05, is a football video game released in . It was developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows, Xbox, PlayStation Portable, GameCube, mobile...
and SSX 3
SSX 3
SSX 3 is a snowboarding extreme racing game published by Electronic Arts and developed by EA Sports BIG, which was released in late 2003. It is the third installment in the SSX series, and is THX approved. Like the previous installments, the game was critically acclaimed...
, and SCi
SCi
Square Enix Limited, doing business as Square Enix Europe, is a British publisher of video game software wholly owned by Square Enix. Square Enix Europe has its head office in the Wimbledon Bridge House in Wimbledon, London Borough of Merton....
's Richard Burns Rally
Richard Burns Rally
Richard Burns Rally is a sim racing game, published by SCi and developed by Warthog with advice of WRC driver Richard Burns.-Summary:It simulates both classic and modern rallying, and is best known for its realistic physics engine....
. A further 30 titles were known to have been in development for the system, but all were canceled before their release due to Tiger Telematics' bankruptcy.
Smart Adds
The "Smart Adds" system was intended as a way for consumers to subsidize part of the costCost
In production, research, retail, and accounting, a cost is the value of money that has been used up to produce something, and hence is not available for use anymore. In business, the cost may be one of acquisition, in which case the amount of money expended to acquire it is counted as cost. In this...
of the unit. The apparent misspelling of the name was intentional and a trademark and company name were registered in the UK as "Smart Adds", though even Tiger Telematics occasionally slipped up and referred to it as Smart Ads in their publicity material. A "Smart Adds"-enabled Gizmondo cost less (£129
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
/$229), but would display advertisements on the Gizmondo's screen at random intervals when the user entered the Home
Home
A home is a place of residence or refuge. When it refers to a building, it is usually a place in which an individual or a family can rest and store personal property. Most modern-day households contain sanitary facilities and a means of preparing food. Animals have their own homes as well, either...
screen on the device. These advertisements would be downloaded via the device's GPRS data connection, and would be targeted
Behavioral targeting
Behavioral targeting is a technique used by online publishers and advertisers to increase the effectiveness of their campaigns.Behavioral targeting uses information collected on an individual's web-browsing behavior, such as the pages they have visited or the searches they have made, to select...
based on data inputted to the device. A maximum of three ads would be shown per day. Some ads would include special offers in the form of vouchers or barcodes, and some would utilize the device's GPS system to direct users to the nearest store carrying the advertised product.
'
However, the "Smart Adds" service was never activated, and users who paid the reduced price for a "Smart Adds"-enabled device did not receive any advertisements through their device.
Technical specifications
- Display: 72 mm (2.8 inch) TFT screenDisplay deviceA display device is an output device for presentation of information in visual or tactile form...
- Resolution: 320 pixels × 240 pixels
- CPU: SamsungSamsungThe Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea...
ARM9 processor running at 400 MHz - Graphics: nVidia GoForce 3D 4500 128-bit 3D Graphics accelerator, maximum of 65,536 colors
- RAM: 64 MBRam-Animals:*Ram, an uncastrated male sheep*Ram cichlid, a species of freshwater fish endemic to Colombia and Venezuela-Military:*Battering ram*Ramming, a military tactic in which one vehicle runs into another...
- Sound: Built-in speakerLoudspeakerA loudspeaker is an electroacoustic transducer that produces sound in response to an electrical audio signal input. Non-electrical loudspeakers were developed as accessories to telephone systems, but electronic amplification by vacuum tube made loudspeakers more generally useful...
- Communication: BluetoothBluetoothBluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security...
class 2 for multiplayer gaming, GSM tri-band - Ports: StereoSTEREOSTEREO is a solar observation mission. Two nearly identical spacecraft were launched into orbits that cause them to respectively pull farther ahead of and fall gradually behind the Earth...
headset socket, Mini-USB client, SDSecure DigitalSecure Digital is a non-volatile memory card format developed by the SD Card Association for use in portable devices. The SD technology is used by more than 400 brands across dozens of product categories and more than 8,000 models, and is considered the de-facto industry standard.Secure Digital...
flash card reader - Power: Removable battery
- Temperature Range: 32°F to 130°F (0°C to 55°C)
- Multimedia: MPEG 4 video playback, ability to play back MP3MP3MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
, WAVWAVWaveform Audio File Format , is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs...
and MIDI files via Windows Media Player 9 - JPEGJPEGIn computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality....
cameraCameraA camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images... - Removable SIM card
- GPSGlobal Positioning SystemThe Global Positioning System is a space-based global navigation satellite system that provides location and time information in all weather, anywhere on or near the Earth, where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites...
tracking application - GPRSGeneral Packet Radio ServiceGeneral packet radio service is a packet oriented mobile data service on the 2G and 3G cellular communication system's global system for mobile communications . GPRS was originally standardized by European Telecommunications Standards Institute in response to the earlier CDPD and i-mode...
mapping application - GPRS Class 10
- SMSSMSSMS is a form of text messaging communication on phones and mobile phones. The terms SMS or sms may also refer to:- Computer hardware :...
- MMSMultimedia Messaging ServiceMultimedia Messaging Service, or MMS, is a standard way to send messages that include multimedia content to and from mobile phones. It extends the core SMS capability that allowed exchange of text messages only up to 160 characters in length.The most popular use is to send photographs from...
receive and send - WAPWireless Application ProtocolWireless Application Protocol is a technical standard for accessing information over a mobile wireless network.A WAP browser is a web browser for mobile devices such as mobile phones that uses the protocol.Before the introduction of WAP, mobile service providers had limited opportunities to offer...
2.0 - Polyphonic ring tones
- Flight modeFlight modeFlight mode is a setting available on most cell phones, smartphones and other electronic devices that, when engaged, suspends many of the device's signal transmitting functions – thereby disabling the device's capacity to place or receive calls or text messages – while still permitting use of other...
Gizmondo widescreen
Tiger Telematics planned to release a widescreen Gizmondo in 2006. It was intended to have a larger screen and upgrades like Wi-FiWi-Fi
Wi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...
and TV-out support. The widescreen Gizmondo was announced just a few weeks before the U.S. launch of the Gizmondo, possibly prompting some potential customers to not buy the Gizmondo, and instead wait for the improved model, in an example of the Osborne effect
Osborne effect
The Osborne effect is a term referring to the unintended consequence of the announcement of a future product ahead of its availability and its impact upon the sales of the current product....
.
Successor
Former Gizmondo director Carl FreerCarl Freer
Carl Johan Freer is a Swedish businessman and technology entrepreneur.-Business activities:Freer founded Gizmondo in 2002, and was Chairman of the board of directors at Gizmondo Europe until he resigned his position in October 2005....
announced in early 2008 his intention to relaunch the Gizmondo console as the Gizmondo 2.
The original planned launch date was May 2008, but this was quickly pushed back to November 2008, along with details of a new company, Media Power, behind the launch, headed by Carl Freer and his Swedish partner Mikael Ljungman
Mikael Ljungman
Mikael Ljungman is a businessman and inventor working with mobile communications. Mikael Ljungman is a partner of Carl Freer, working on the relaunch of Gizmondo, the gaming and Augmented Reality console, Blowfishworks and The Media Power Group, GetFugu. Following the IT Factory scam, Danish...
, with development apparently proceeding according to the new schedule at least until September. By December 2008, the console had still not appeared, and another announcement was made about a complete redesign as a Windows CE or Google Android powered smart phone.
Since then, the Media Power website has gone offline, co-founder Mikael Ljungman has been arrested and convicted of serious fraud, and nothing more has been announced about the console or smart phone. The Gizmondo 2 was abandoned because Tiger Telematics went bankrupt when the Gizmondo was discontinued.