Another portable contestant a possibility?

Straight off one of the biggest years in portable gaming history, Gamasutra ask the question, “What hardware capabilities and software would be needed for a third company to create a competitive rival to the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP, and which companies might be capable of doing so?” The community responses were all across the board, with one respondent "suggesting that the best move is to create a handheld that plays current-generation games, like NEC's Turbo Express."

Here is a sampling of some other ideas:

• "Two possible options [of capable companies] would be mobile phone companies, or some sort of 'modders delight,' where the unit sold came with dev tools and SDKs or pre-built game engines."

• "The hardware should be able to compete with the Sony PSP, especially in screen size. No need to duplicate the Nintendo DS's touch screen."

• "I don't think that it matters what kind of hardware should have a third competitor, it all comes down to the software. The dismay of Nokia wasn't because of the clunky design of the N-Gage but the lack of good games."

• "A new handheld would need performance comparable to the PSP, but would also need to provide some avenue of differentiation to make the device a platform in its own right (like the DS)"

• "I think the competition is most likely to come from one of 2 companies: Apple... [and] Microsoft."

What say ye, readers?