Gizmondo



"I can do anything."

The Gizmondo handheld was a rather fascinating system, in the same way as a train wreck.

Produced by Swedish electronics distributor Tiger Telematics (absolutely no relation with Tiger Electronics from USA), it was introduced with a lavish marketing budget, and it was rather powerful for its time. It had some unique features, such as Bluetooth, camera, mobile data, messaging, and GPS — years before smartphones made those popular. However, they made it too expensive, so it was sold at full price or ad-subsidized. Also its library was very limited, and everyone was hyped for the PSP at the time. Consequently, the Gizmondo sold extremely poorly.

Soon, it was found that several of Tiger's executives had connections to the "Uppsala Mafia" crime ring and other dirty dealings, and the whole operation was designed to swindle money from investors. Soon the company went bankrupt, and the system was left with a paltry library of 14 games.