Peter Foot

rzanology

Typhoon

Wiggster

Rival it in hardware? Very likely. But in gameplay? No, I doubt we'll see a PDA merge itself with these silly little Gameboy-style toys that I want to buy. Why? Because a productive PDA will have a different form factor and ergonomics than a device that's designed to play video games. Sure, they both would use big screens, but consoles are designed for twitch-responses, while PDAs are designed for data entry/retrieval. That's not to say you can't have both, I'm just predicting it won't happen in the next year.

Also, you won't see a PDA that's as capable as the PSP and anywhere near the same price point. Why? Console makers can afford to lose money on every single unit sold. They get license income from every game sold for the device; it's a prolonged income from a single user. With PDAs, you can't very well lose money on a device when you'll get very little supplicating income from accessories, notwithstanding that you have to include a warranty with the base price. Also, consoles outsell most PDA models, and stanardized parts from a single device means you can buy in bulk and cut down on the per-unit cost of hardware.

Just my 2 cents.