And this is the Tiger Telematics Gizmondo released in 2005 at an initial asking price

of 399 US dollars.

This infamous handheld gaming device was arguably doomed from the start due to a variety of

extenuating circumstances that we will talk about.

And it became one of the most infamous tech failures to come out of the first decade of

the 2000s.

It sold fewer than 25,000 units worldwide before its parent company underwent bankruptcy

and liquidation in February of 2006.

Yeah, less than 25,000 units.

Which means that it did even worse than one of its contemporaries, the Tapwave Zodiac,

which was also a huge flop but almost looks like a success in comparison with that selling

around 200,000 units.

So a big thank you to Adrian for lending me this complete in box example to make this

video, because Gizmondo packages like this are rare and getting harder to find and I

am excited to talk about it.

But first I do want to attempt to answer some of the questions

as to why this thing ended up how it did.

What was it about the Gizmondo that made it such a noteworthy story of failure?

Well that is quite the tale indeed, involving investment scams, ties to organized crime,

and a high-speed Ferrari crashing so hard it tore in half.

And while the entire story of what happened behind the scenes is worthy of a documentary

really, today we're mostly going to be focusing on the hardware itself.

But I cannot resist including a condensed overview of the story so let's go ahead and

start with Tiger Telematics, a company not to be confused with Tiger Electronics, that

began in the year 2000 as Eagle Eye Scandinavian.

An electronics business in Sweden founded by Mr. Carl Freer.

Now Eagle Eye mostly distributed GPS devices for their first couple years on the market

but in a rather strange turn of events in 2002 they were acquired by an American carpet

and flooring company based in Jacksonville, Florida called Floor Decor.

Now this business partnership was the brainchild of Stefan Eriksson, an old acquaintance of

Carl Freer and a fellow Swede.

And this business deal allegedly was due to wanting to make use of Floor Decor’s over-the-counter

stock listing, renaming the merged companies as Tiger Telematics.

The initial idea was to use Eagle Eye’s GPS experience to create a “child tracking

system” in the form of a portable device to let parents know where their kids are 24/7.

But due to the, uh, unsettling nature of the prospect, plus the fact that getting children

to keep a GPS tracking device with them at all times was a tough sell, Tiger decided

to shift gears in 2003.

Their new product was an expansion on the idea they called Gametrac, and the goal was

to provide the same child-tracking service but put it inside of a portable game console

instead so that kids would be more inclined to keep it with them.

Early press photos showed a small yellow device that somewhat resembled a pager in its design

accompanied by an announcement that game track would be the official sponsor of the Eddie

Jordan Grand Prix team starting in 2003.

Then in November they showed the first prototypes to the public revealing a sleek all-metal

housing with over 100 Java and Mophun games said to be ready for its launch date, all

rather promising stuff!

But by the time it finally showed up at the Microsoft booth at the 2004 Consumer Electronics

Show in Las Vegas, the design had changed somewhat.

there was no metal case anymore since it apparently interfered with the GPS connection and there

was little to no sign of the 100+ games promised the year before.

Furthermore there was a trademark dispute over the name Gametrac in the UK so a new

name was soon devised: Gizmondo.

Not to be confused with Gizmodo the tech blog.

As well as a uk-based subsidiary taking care of much of the marketing known as Gizmondo Europe.

And the UK was also the first to receive the Gizmondo

device when it finally launched on March 19 2005.

And it was not just sold online and in your expected retailers.

The company went all out with their own flagship retail store on London's Regent Street.

They even flew in performers like Busta Rhymes, Pharrell Williams, and Sting to hang out and

perform for their launch event, partying it up with hosts Tom Green and Dannii Minogue.

And in another promotion Gizmondos Stefan Eriksson entered the 2005 24 Hours of LeMans

race in his own Gizmondo-sponsored Ferrari 360 GTC.

However, for all the publicity stunts and celebrity-ridden parties, actual Gizmondo

sales were pitiful from the start.

Tiger expected to sell 4,500 units on launch day alone but

barely managed to move a thousand of them.

The problems with it were numerous but one of the biggest was the price.

The Gizmondo cost more than twice as much as the recently launched Nintendo DS with

CNN Money quoted as saying that on top of its other problems “the product carries

an insultingly high price tag.”

Then there was the lackluster consumer marketing campaign and abysmal developer support with

CNET UK reporting it as “too little, too late.

It’s lacking games support, it's uncool.”

When the Gizmondo finally released in the US in October of 2005 things weren't much

better, and actually they were arguably worse, with the device almost exclusively being sold

in small mall kiosks with very little advertising.

And the game situation did not improve much either, with only eight of the planned fourteen

games ever being released in the US and some of the promised GPS software never showing up here.

And then the lawsuits started pouring in.

Jordan Grand Prix sued them and won one and a half million dollars over not being paid

all of their promised sponsorship money.

Then advertising agency Ogilvy sued for more than four million dollars over unpaid marketing

work, followed by MTV suing over Gizmondo Europe

backing out of an agreement to sponsor several shows.

And then on top of the low sales, owing to debtors, and then making so many business

deals trading company shares in lieu of taking cash payments, Gizmondo declared bankruptcy

in January of 2006 having lost a reported 382.5 million dollars in only 45 months of existence.

And then the fascinating cherry on top is Stefan Eriksson, who'd resigned from the company

shortly before they went under.

He first really hit the news all over the place because he was involved in an epic crash

along California's Pacific Coast Highway where he was drunkenly driving a million dollar

Ferrari Enzo at what was initially thought to be around 162 miles an hour.

The wreck sheared the car in two, flung the engine out the back, and the car being only

one of around 400 manufactured someone spectacularly crashing such a rare car and surviving with

only a busted lip would have been news enough.

But this was the ex-Gizmondo executive and the circumstances around the crash were increasingly

strange, so the story gained plenty of outside media attention.

“Chris, that Ferrari Enzo was nearly obliterated in the high-speed crash along the PCH.”

“The occupants who were protected inside its Formula One style cockpit walked away.”

“But one of those men, Stefan Eriksson, isn't escaping attention.”

And this attention resulted in some truly bizarre twists coming to light, including

the Ferrari belonging to Scotland's Capital Bank and they had no idea how it got to the

US, a videotape shot inside the Ferrari revealing It was actually going 199 miles per hour before

the crash, some evidence of weaponry on the scene by finding the magazine for an automatic

Glock, and Eriksson claiming to be a part of a so-called “anti terrorism task force,”

which turned out to be a local bus company serving senior citizens.

It all culminated in articles revealing Eriksson's unsavory past with the Swedish mafia, selling

cocaine and steroids in the 80s as well as a later

criminal enterprise dealing in kidnapping, counterfeiting, and fraud.

He'd spent more than six years in prison before helping start Tiger Telematics and while at

Gizmondo he and others allegedly made some sketchy cash by layering their account records

under various confusing names, with nearly 200 million dollars remaining unaccounted

for in 2006 according to the SEC.

There were several arrests and investigations that resulted but Eriksson spent three years

behind bars for embezzlement and illegal gun possession, before being deported to Sweden

where he spent another 18 months in prison for extortion and aggravated assault after

pouring gasoline on someone who owed him money.

But hey, at least the Enzo he wrecked had a happy ending!

The car was fully repaired, painted black, and certified by Ferrari, selling at auction

in 2016 for about 1.75 million dollars.

And yeah, that's honestly just scratching the surface of the whole story behind this

thing but let's go ahead and dive into the device itself and see what four hundred dollars

bought you in 2005!

Or more like $229 in this specific version of the Gizmondo which is known as the Smart

Adds release, as you see all over this box.

The concept here was that you would buy it at a hefty discount by agreeing to be served

advertisements on the screen every so often, or being provided exclusive discounts on nearby

products by referencing your location through GPS, as you can see in this demonstration

video.

“And get two for one just by showing this barcode at your local 7-Eleven.

You current position is indicated by the flashing green dot or your GPS screen.”

But as far as I can tell Gizmondo never actually activated the Smart Adds service so my condolences

to customers that paid the full 400 dollars for one of these.

Also It's worth noting that even though the ads were to be sent using a cellular network,

the Gizmondo could not send or receive phone calls, only text messages.

To do that It has an integrated slot for a SIM card in the battery compartment and even

came with a prepaid card to get you started, from Vodafone in the case of this specific

UK release I have here.

As for the rest of the box contents you also get an AC adapter for charging the system,

along with an adapter appropriate for the region it was sold in so you can plug it into

the friggin wall.

As well as a USB cable for syncing to a PC using Microsoft ActiveSync.

A lithium ion battery pack, many of which have gone bad over the years and are bulging

outward by this point in time.

And a pair of Gizmondo earbuds that are not very comfortable at all, but that's not exactly

an uncommon thing for 2005.

I just never liked earbuds like this.

You also get this demonstration package on an SD card in the box labeled “I CAN DO

ANYTHING,” which seemed to be a kind of product catchphrase or motto of some kind

as seen in the one and only TV ad for the Gizmondo.

“According to all principles it's too heavy for its wings.

It just can't fly.

But no one has told this to the bumblebee...

So it flies and flies.

He doesn't care much about principals.

Do you?”

You also got this sleeve filled with a few extra goodies like this card letting you know

you can claim some free music if you register with the company, as well as a CD containing

the full manual in digital form.

And which oddly enough looks like a burned CD-R to my eye, as opposed to a professionally

pressed compact disc.

And then you also get this Gizmondo quick start guide which may not be as thorough as

the digital manual, but I'm glad it’s here.

I like physical documentation.

And it still covers all the basic- to moderate-level functions quite clearly with plenty of illustrations

along the way.

And you know what?

The technical specs aren't too shabby for the time and additional impressions of just

holding the system in the hands it doesn't feel too bad at first.

On the front here you get a 2.8 inch TFT LCD screen with a resolution of 320x240.

And while it's not a touchscreen like some of its competitors, it's still backlit and

has nice colors and looks pretty good for the time.

Along the top of the device you get an assortment of function keys for power, alarm, brightness,

volume, and heading to the home screen.

Above the front facing speaker on the right hand side you get four face buttons that act

as both audio-visual commands and software controls with just enough tactile feel to

provide proper buttons appropriate for gaming.

Speaking of gaming you get a circular d-pad over here that doesn't feel great, but surprisingly

has a decently satisfying separation of directions when pressed down.

And then you also get two chunky circular shoulder buttons on the top referred to as

“left shift” and “right menu.”

Along the bottom are sockets for an external power supply and a mini-USB connection, a

3.5 millimeter headphone jack, and an SD card slot for both storage and retail game releases.

And those came in these thin plastic keep cases with a manual and an SD card inside.

Sadly I do not own any of these as they are irritatingly hard to find now but yeah, this

is what they look like.

And then the back of the machine is pretty unassuming but it does feature something I

didn't realize the Gizmondo had until I got this one and that is an integrated digital

camera, something we will be testing out soon.

Lastly, I want to mention this black rubber coating that's all over it, because it's not

only rather unique to the system but anytime I bring up having a Gizmondo in my possession

I always get questions about it melting or becoming too sticky to use.