The Battle of the Handhelds
For anyone who's been waiting to buy a Nintendo DS, the time is quickly approaching that you'll want to reach for your wallet (and realize you still need to search between your couch cushions). Behold, the fast-approaching Nintendo DS Lite!
Yesterday, Nintendo announced the upcoming Nintendo DS Lite (in Japan; you'll want a translator to parse that announcement for you), which will be smaller, thinner, and lighter than the existing DS. To be exact, the Lite will weigh in at 5.24 x 2.91 x 0.85 in. (or 12.96 cubic in.) and 20% lighter than the original DS (which measures 5.85 x 3.33 x 1.13 in., or 22.01 cubic in.). That's roughly a 40% decrease in volume (if you kids care about how much water a DS displaces vs. a DS Lite). To offer a standard by which to compare these, though, try this on for size: the Game Boy Micro is 5.6 cubic in., the Game Boy Advance SP is 9.81 cubic in., and the Xbox360's power brick holds roughly the same volume of water as Lake Michigan.
Of course, this bird's-eye view of the two consoles side-by-side doesn't quite offer the best representation of the two sizes (since you can't determine thickness at this angle), but the decrease in footprint alone is rpetty remarkable.
Now doesn't that just make you start to salivate all down the front of your shirt?
Of course, no announcement of this magnitude can be left untouched by our good friends at Microsoft; BusinessWeek Online ran an article outing some insider information hinting at the possibility of a Microsoft-brand portable something. Primarily, they've formed a research team to look into the feasibility of an iPod-like portable digital media device. BW didn't have to make a large leap in logic when they wrote: “any Microsoft media device would have to leverage the company’s most significant consumer strength, video gaming.” Obviously, the likelihood of another "iPod beater" succeeding in a market already saturated by lack-luster music players, vying to compete with the heralded Apple iPod, is remarkably slim. Of course, Microsoft doesn't like to play unless they can win, and with their success in the video game and console market, they'd have to be... slow, to say the least... to not want to create a new type of portable device, an amalgam of digital music and portable gaming.
I just don't want to see this on shelves (thanks to Joystiq for the image).
Yesterday, Nintendo announced the upcoming Nintendo DS Lite (in Japan; you'll want a translator to parse that announcement for you), which will be smaller, thinner, and lighter than the existing DS. To be exact, the Lite will weigh in at 5.24 x 2.91 x 0.85 in. (or 12.96 cubic in.) and 20% lighter than the original DS (which measures 5.85 x 3.33 x 1.13 in., or 22.01 cubic in.). That's roughly a 40% decrease in volume (if you kids care about how much water a DS displaces vs. a DS Lite). To offer a standard by which to compare these, though, try this on for size: the Game Boy Micro is 5.6 cubic in., the Game Boy Advance SP is 9.81 cubic in., and the Xbox360's power brick holds roughly the same volume of water as Lake Michigan.
Of course, this bird's-eye view of the two consoles side-by-side doesn't quite offer the best representation of the two sizes (since you can't determine thickness at this angle), but the decrease in footprint alone is rpetty remarkable.
Now doesn't that just make you start to salivate all down the front of your shirt?
Of course, no announcement of this magnitude can be left untouched by our good friends at Microsoft; BusinessWeek Online ran an article outing some insider information hinting at the possibility of a Microsoft-brand portable something. Primarily, they've formed a research team to look into the feasibility of an iPod-like portable digital media device. BW didn't have to make a large leap in logic when they wrote: “any Microsoft media device would have to leverage the company’s most significant consumer strength, video gaming.” Obviously, the likelihood of another "iPod beater" succeeding in a market already saturated by lack-luster music players, vying to compete with the heralded Apple iPod, is remarkably slim. Of course, Microsoft doesn't like to play unless they can win, and with their success in the video game and console market, they'd have to be... slow, to say the least... to not want to create a new type of portable device, an amalgam of digital music and portable gaming.
I just don't want to see this on shelves (thanks to Joystiq for the image).
posted by IcarusFountain at
11:27 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home