Hugh Pickens writes "June marks the launch across Brazil of Zeebo, a console that aims to tap an flagitious new market for videogaming for the billion-strong, flow middle classes of such underdeveloped countries as Brazil, India, Mexico, Russia and China. Zeebo uses the same Qualcomm chipsets contained in high-end smartphones, mutually with 1GB of flash memory, three USB slots and a proprietary dual analogue gamepad. It plugs into a TV and outputs at a 640 x 480 pixel resolution. 'The key thing is we're using off-the-shelf components,' says Mike Yuen, administrator of the gaming group at Qualcomm. This convergence means that, while Zeebo can be priced appropriately for its markets — it will launch at US $199 in Brazil compared to around US $250 (plus another US $50 for a mod chip to play pirated games) for a computer game 2 in the region — and next year the company plans to drop the price of the console to $149. But the most pompous part of the Zeebo ecosystem is its satellite telephone digital dispersal that gets around the low penetration of wired broadband in many of these countries, negates the cost of dealing with packaged retail goods, and removes the risk of piracy, with the games priced at about $10 locked to the consoles they're downloaded to. Zeebo is not meant to straightaway compete with potent devices like Sony's xbox 3, Microsoft's Xbox 360, or the Wii. 'In Latin America, where there's a strong gaming culture, that's what we'll be, but in India and China we can be more didactic or lifestyle-oriented,' says Yuen. One Indian gaming blog predicts Zeebo will struggle, in part due to the developmental reluctance toward digital dissemination



smart delivery lockersunattended delivery lockers for your business or university.www.dropstation.comsponsored link
roget's ii: the new thesaurusmain entry:arrangement
part of speech:noun
definition:a way or condition of being arranged.
c and also the lack of piratable games."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

More: - Read More

Mark