Nintendo has been the leader in the handheld market for many years. It has knocked off every competitor it came across. Then Sony entered the market with the Playstation Portable (PSP). Nintendo answered back with the DS (dual-screen) and the DS Lite to remain the handheld leader. Now a third company will be tossing their hat in the ring in July of ’08.

Microsoft plans to introduce video games to its Zune by July 2008. On January 7th, Peter Moore, a vice president of Microsoft’s Xbox video-game side, confirmed the rumor. Unfortunately he did not reveal any games that would be or possibly be in production. ``I love the interface, I love the screen,'' stated Moore, referring to his belief that the Zune screen would be perfect for playing handheld games.

Microsoft introduced the Zune to the public in November as an answer to the Apple’s iPod, though it has had very little success of taking any shares away from Apple. The iPod stayed successful due to the applications, accessories and other features the Zune was not capable of, for example; TV programs and Games.

The Zune has sold its share of units and is expecting to hit 1 million by June 30th 2006. That is significantly less than the iPod which sold 8.73 million iPods in the 3rd quarter of ’06.

Source

Related: Microsoft's Zune to hit retail