theory about tapwave-device and zire 71

[omu]

** this is just a theory, based on news from the internet and my own ideas about it**

I read that some tapwave managers are coming from managing positions at palm. I assume they were very convinced that a palm-gaming-device would be a hit. But until recently, palm never put any "gaming" appeal to their handhelds.

So, as it often happens, they feel their opinion is not taken seriously enough and they start thinking about buildung up their own company. They convince some people with expertise in game software/marketing and plan their new company/device with "gaming" appeal.

Now, usually if managers go off to do start their own business, the company they come from doesn't feel too happy about it. My guess is these ex-palm-managers did a lot of talking about how a cheap palm-gaming-device would be selling greatly. So a lot of palm-managers must be pretty fed up with this idea.

Now that they're (Tapwave) building up their marketing, with the product still about half a year away, what does palm do?
They put out a device (zire 71) with a Joystick (!!) and a camera with a small price tag.

This is where I think they basically tried to occupy this piece of marketshare half a year before their ex-managers can jump on it.
So after these people go off to do their thing, palm goes in their direction... what an irony... (mind you it could be different of course)

IS THIS IDEA GOING TO BE A BIG SUCCESS?

There was a lot of discussion going on in different threads. I personally heard from the german dealer of Handera that one problem for them was, that at this moment no investor would invest extra money in pda-companys (like Handera). And that was about a year ago. So I think their (Tapwaves) driver for this new company is mainly their strong belief in Palm-Gaming-Devices. And Palm is (possibly) backfiring on them even before their product is there.

What do you think?

[Shogmaster]

Tapwave's Helix is gonna fail and fail hard IMO. I've already said my views on it here and there.

http://www.cliesource.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13446&perpage=15&highlight=tapwave&pagenumber=2

http://www.palminfocenter.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=13879

[archangel]

The demo video Tapwave put out was quite sad. They use PS2 (or maybe PC) screen shots of Spy Hunter and Tony Hawk to promo a device that won't be able to deliver that kind of graphics.

False advertising if you ask me. This is a device without a place in the market. There is very little interest in a dedicated gaming PDA. I agree it will be a total failure.

[Joel]

At first, I was awed by the announcement of Tapwave prompting me to put several articles about it here even if it's not Clie-related.

However, after thinking about it, I too believe that its lifespan will be short. Sure it will generate sales in the first quarter of its introduction but after that it won't. The reason? There's no place for a gaming device in a Palm world. If I want to really delve into a game, I switch platforms.

I'm dealing with lots of kids in my work. They know of three things to satisfy their gaming needs in this order: consoles, "gameboys," and desktops (in that order). The generation now know of quality games when they see it. And I trust in their points-of-view. Actually this whole thing reminds me of the movie, Big. :)

Sure, the Helix is aimed at adults, but adults will soon see that the quality of games for the Helix will not be as good at the ones in the other games-dedicated platforms by the time the Helix is released.

I'd love to see a kid do a review of the Helix when it comes out!

[ashVID]

Nice to see you guys coming around. Like I have emphatically stated, this device seems to be a ploy to market licensed OLD game ports and make BIG money. The price point is so low that it will have to be sold at a loss with hopes of recouping thru games sales and licensing. Basically they will be charging you $20 for a half @ss port of a game you probably already own. I just dont think Palm OS 5 can support good enough games. Even if they CAN make great games I dont think there will be enough units sold to attract the big developers, hence you will get ports attemping to appeal to your sense of nostalgia...


ash =o)

[omu]

It's interesting what you think about it, generally.

My own view is that they are doing their bet on just one idea,
in a more or less global recession with lots of downsizing (at least Germany).

My idea was that they simply won't have a lot of money to really sit it out and build a huge library, and nobody is gonna give them more in case it doesnt work out. Also, they got an environment where it's all about processors and ram-size, which the console's don't have so intensely. So probably Palm is a not-good idea for them to go with. I agree with one poster from another thread- people dont care about the platform, as long as their is a big library of games.


If you go by the reactions from people here at cliesource, it seems there is some minutes of enthusiasm (by some) and then people tend to loose interest.

Could it be that this is another case of people being too technic-oriented and by that loosing their business sense? Or are they clever in a way that people here at cliesource just don't understand?

[omu]

I really dont know why this is- some times I'm logged in as "Guest", sometimes as "registered" ( I registered in Dec. 2002)

omu

[Shogmaster]

Originally posted by omu
Could it be that this is another case of people being too technic-oriented and by that loosing their business sense? Or are they clever in a way that people here at cliesource just don't understand?

Of the two choices, it's definitely option A, but I think in this case it's actually option C, which is smart folks that dont know anything about the gaming industry jumping head first into a disaster.

[Alistar]

I agree about the gaming library. I don't buy a gaming console or platform because the device I buy it because I like the game library. They will need to offer a large variety of fairly original games in order to make it, although there is a place for classics as well.

[icarus]

Originally posted by omu


Now that they're (Tapwave) building up their marketing, with the product still about half a year away, what does palm do?
They put out a device (zire 71) with a Joystick (!!) and a camera with a small price tag.

This is where I think they basically tried to occupy this piece of marketshare half a year before their ex-managers can jump on it.
So after these people go off to do their thing, palm goes in their direction... what an irony... (mind you it could be different of course)



As far as I know, Zire71 has just a 5-way joystick. Just another kind of the T|T (etc.) 5-way button.

The Tapwave device (Helix) is supposed to have a analog (kind of 360 degree) joystick. Something, you really could call joystick.

I couldn't imagine, that the Zire71 could be any threat to Tapwave.

Further more, I don't think, Palm SG would like to position themselves in the gaming field. They rather want to be THE partner for the corporate world. Therefore such a gaming image could be a bad touch/marketing.

We'll see. I wish all of them lot's of success. And that would also support our PalmOS world.