Although initially dubbed an "iPod killer," the device will reportedly compete with Sony's PlayStation Portable.
Writing at the San Jose
Mercury News website, Dean Takashahi notes,
as have others, that Microsoft's previous efforts at handheld entertainment devices have "fallen short," and that the existence of this project in tandem with the recently announced
Ultra-Mobile PCs (aka "Origami" devices) suggests continued "infighting" within the company as to the best approach to portable gadgets.
Speculation has it that the new device will be based on a Transmeta chip, given that last year, Transmeta assigned 30 engineers to work on a secret project with Microsoft, reports Takahashi. That project is thought to focus on reducing power consumption to increase battery life in handheld devices.
Takahashi further suggests that part of the reason for Microsoft's
reorganization of its Home and Entertainment Division last September was to bring several Xbox veterans, including Greg Gibson, J Allard, and Bryan Lee, together under the direction of Robbie Bach to pursue the project.
The device probably won't make it to store shelves before next year at the earliest, or possibly even 2008, Takahashi speculates.
Unclear, is whether the rumored Microsoft project would result in a Microsoft-branded device, like the
Xbox, or in a Microsoft-defined device category, like the
Portable Media Center (left) or the
Ultra-Mobile PC (right).
Read the complete
Mercury News article
here.
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