Gizmondo Slashes Prices - But At A Cost To User

MEDIA CENTER PC NEWS

April 12th 2005

Gizmondo Slashes Prices - But At A Cost To User

Gizmondo

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Gizmondo, the new British challenger to the PSP and DS, has received good reviews, but understandably poor sales. Now, Tiger Telematics, the manufacturer, is hitting back at Nintendo and Sony by slashing the price, but forcing periodic ads onto the user.

The new 'Smart Adds' Gizmondo will come
pre-subscribed to what Gizmondo call an ‘added value’ service at a RRP of Ł129, Ł100 cheaper than the standard unit which will remain on sale.

Smart Adds are a method of delivering TV-quality promotions via this mobile device, made possible by the Gizmondo’s GPRS connectivity, remarkable processing power, and graphical capabilities. They come with a list of benefits like 20 free music downloads for the first 12 months, video downloads, films, games, and other exclusive content.

Some Smart Adds will contain redemption or barcodes that can be shown to a participating
retailer for product discounts and free merchandise, whilst the onboard Global Positioning System hardware can even give directions to the nearest store.

No more than three Smart Adds will be sent to one of these enabled devices each day, they’re self-deleting to ensure relevance, and because of the sign up process, they’re so perfectly targeted they’ll make TV advertising look like spam.

The Smart Adds themselves will feature anything from new trainers, to video clips of new albums, movie and game trailers, DVD previews, even advi-games direct to the device. Most importantly they’re non-interruptive, i.e. a movie or a game will not be interrupted by the
Smart Add, only when the user returns to the Home menu will be they be broadcasted to the
device. Squarely focused on the MTV generation with similar tones and relevance to that particular audience, owners of this model will not receive ads for washing up liquids, tax
return reminders, or stair lifts.

The Smart Add-enabled device will come in two guises; a standard pack containing the
enabled Gizmondo, battery, charger, earbud headphones, USB lead, and a contract free SIM card with Ł5 of credit, and a Value pack containing all the above and plus an extra Ł90 worth of accessories and games. These include Hifi stereo headphones instead of the earbuds, a recordable 128MB recordable SD card containing demos of games, films and music, a free copy of Trailblazer, and a voucher for the first ever GPS game, Colors.
The standard Smart Adds Gizmondo pack will retail at an amazing RRP of Ł129 ($245, €189)
and the Extra Value pack at Ł199 ($375, €289), releasing on 22nd April in the UK, and will be available at launch in each territory as the global roll out continues. Final focus testing is being conducted until the end of April, with the full roll out of Smart Adds planned for 2nd May 2005.

Any customer who buys, or has bought, the non-Smart Adds Gizmondo can choose to upgrade their device, and will receive an electronic voucher for all the accessories included in the Extra Value Pack (or other accessories to the same value).

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