Will a Microsoft Hand-Held Console Arise?

Hand-held game consoles have been around for a long time. The first, being the Microvision, which was released by the Milton Bradley Company in 1979. After a few years, Nintendo started dominating the hand-held market. Eventually, Sony came out with the PlayStation Portable (PSP). The PSP has been fairly good competition for Nintendo, but not enough that Nintendo really needs to worry. As you've probably noticed, there's a lack of a Microsoft hand-held game console. Sure, they've made Pocket PC's and things, but not a true hand-held game console.

There have been rumors flying around, for some time, that they're creating one. Although, none of it's actually been confirmed. In 2006, they released a hand-held device called the "Origami". However, this still wasn't a hand-held console. It's just a Pocket PC. You can read more about it at this website http://gear.ign.com/articles/691/691935p1.html. There have been some artist renderings of a Xbox hand-held, which are quite cool. You can view a picture here http://www.unbeatable.co.uk/articles/xboxportablenews.gif.

Now, if they were to create a hand-held console, they'd have quite a bit of competition. Another problem is, what if people don't trust a Xbox hand-held? Look at the disaster they've had with the Xbox 360. People may be afraid that their $300.00 (just guessing price) is going to go to waste. Nobody wants another Red Ring of Death incident. However, if they could create a hand-held that had the power of a modern day computer, and they got rid of all of the possible problems, they might have something. Personally, I don't think they should try to make it a computer that can play games. Even if games are it's main function, I don't think they should make it have a Windows OS, or something like that. They would just need to create a simple dashboard. Probably similar to the Xbox 360 one. The price of something like that would be very expensive, though. Think about the PSP. It was $250.00 when it first came out. If you look at that technology and compare it to something Microsoft could pull it off, it'd probably be at least $300.00 for the console. That could also dissuade people from getting it. There are many possibilities. Check out these websites for some more information, http://www.wikixbox360.com/page/Xbox+Handheld%3F%3F?t=anon, http://www.gamepro.com/news.cfm?article_id=52739.

Only time will tell if Microsoft creates one, and if they do, if it will be a success. Hopefully, it'll be something very revolutionary. We'll just have to wait and see.