Then you have Sony who managed to make a whole media center + web browser into a tiny portable resource constrained device, aka the PSP
Maybe that's why Microsoft could never make a PSP or a Nintendo handheld type console, lack of people who REALLY care about things
> Maybe that's why Microsoft could never make a PSP or a Nintendo handheld type console
I'm fuzzy on the history but I do believe online play was embraced by Microsoft far before Sony or the others. Am I right? Anyway, that required home Internet. Sony/Nintendo had their popular portable systems - designed for offline play. In 2005 that type of Internet-reliant online gaming wasn't going to work too well on a portable device with 2005-era wifi and 2G expensive cellular plans in the fashion that Sony or Nintendo would envision.
Also in 2005 Microsoft's mobile plans were all-in on Windows CE. Because their strategy at time was Windows everywhere...why? fundamentally Microsoft was at that time primarily software licensing company that would rather sit and collect license royalties and let other companies develop the low-margin hardware side. Could you imagine a clunky Xbox Portable Zune CE, being really some rebranded Toshiba or Sharp device that was something else in Japan?
PSP was released in 2005, it was sold for just $250, 9 months before the XBOX 360
iPod nano, sleek and fast UI, released in 2005 too
Why is that a thing to always find excuses for Microsoft? acknowledge the issues, and work on them, it's getting tiring
XBox had online play by default, Sony and Nintendo required you to buy a peripheral. As a footnote, I think the Dreamcast (1998) was probably the first console that came with a modem by default, and an optional broadband adapter.
> Sony/Nintendo had their popular portable systems - designed for offline play.
PSP had wifi built-in.
The Xbox dashboard is slow because of Microsoft's business goals for it, not because the Xbox 360 hardware or software struggles with HD-sized JPEGs or whatever.