Comments on: Why did Tapwave & Gizmondo fail?

By: Om Malik’s Broadband Blog » Games Gizmondo Plays

Om Malik’s Broadband Blog » Games Gizmondo Plays — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 19:33:32 +0000

[...] Gizmondo, the gaming device maker is not selling many devices, has a questionable future, but that hasn’t stopped company’s executives to get fat-off-the-company’s coffers. Mob Happy has the latest skinny, but I leave you with this little something about the extracurricular activities of some of the execs. Tamela Sainsbury, the corporate secretary of Gizmondo Europe, is the co-habiting partner of Steve Carroll, a director of the Company. In 2004, Gizmondo Europe paid Ms. Sainsbury $149,844 in base compensation, other compensation and bonuses of $82,954 and provided her with a luxury automobile valued at $69,108 at the time of acquisition. In addition, in 2004 the Company issued Ms. Sainsbury atotal of 160,681 shares of the Company’s common stock valued at $467,213. Ms.Sainsbury’s base compensation for 2005 is $192,777. In Moore’s Claw Posted Thursday, September 29, 2005 at 12:33 PM PT [...]

By: dan

dan — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 10:41:41 +0000

Gizmondo are still in business… where did you get the idea they had failed? They are moving their business to the USA to make it cheaper to produce and sell over here, also all the games are to be released on the US release date.

By: Om Malik

Om Malik — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 20:30:09 +0000

i am pretty sure that if they were using an open platform, they would have been more successful. i think.

By: Iain

Iain — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 20:09:32 +0000

Would Tapwave have been sucessful if they were running an open linux envoronment that encouraged third party development?

By: Charlie Sierra

Charlie Sierra — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 18:39:47 +0000

I think the Tapwave situation is even easier to figure out.

Palm, their platform partner, has a dubious future at best. These guys have no vision, no direction, have wasted tons of cash on non-revenue producing OS’s (ver. 5 and 6), are slow to react to the market, and no longer can control the relationship with the buyer, because carriers have the final say.

Since the next release, aka Palm on Linux, is not due until late 2006 (2007?), you’d be a fool to continue the Tapwave business, which was predicated on a different future path at Palm.

Maybe the Tapwave people will regroup and try again with their own linux-based product, with connectivity.

By: Victor Blake

Victor Blake — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 16:15:39 +0000

Or buy a tablet that can run any of this stuff as add on software apps. aka motion computing or sony.

By: John

John — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 15:36:03 +0000

Om,

You make some great points that every company trying to tackle the consumer market should heed. Oftentmes we forget that us early adopters and gadget hos of the world are not the target audience. I might want all kind of features that don’t gibe at all with the mass market.

One thing to note is the iPod had the built-in Apple cult following behind it while the Tapwave and Gizmondo were starting from scratch. Still it’s because of the reasons you give that the iPod was able to move beyond it’s audience to achieve it’s current status…