from your article:

The company launched the Handspring Visor line of products on September 14, 1999. 

Try not to let it bother you. Who cares anyway?

wow @ the logic in this thread..

apparently doing an idea of something that exist and using newer tech is NOT copying.

Comedy! HAHAHA keep it going sony kids!

the spring board moduals were already shown before than, the product line display was shown in fall of 97' with an event in CES 98 READY FOR LAUNCH IN 99

Wouldn't something similar be true for the GB camera?

WAIT SO IF TWO PEOPLE ARE WORKING ON THE SAME CONCEPT BUT SOMEONE GET'S IT OUT FIRST BECAUSE THEIR FORM OF THE CONCEPT IS CHEAPER AND MAY NOT BE AS ACCURATE, THAN THE OTHER GUY WHO CANNOT GET HIS OUT FIRST BECAUSE THE COMPONENT'S ARE MORE EXPENSIVE IS MAKING A COPY OF THE CONCEPT OF THE CHEAPER METHOD?

omg, AND YOU SAY KEEP IT UP SONY KID'S?

if you want to be snide about it, Nintendo Licence's, and innovates, At least Sony Invent's AND INNOVATES! with out invention there is no innovation!

your not making a copy on something you yourself invent!

So before this so called pitch in 2001 to Nintendo, Sony's R&D WAS ALREADY WORKING ON A CONCEPT AND HAD DEMO'S OF SAID CONCEPT'S WORKING BEFORE EVEN NINTENDO HAD THE PITCH FOR THE D@MN WiiMote. by a 3RD PARTY "INVENTOR" you know the people that created said WiiMote concept for Nintendo to Licence!,

lOOK NO ONE IS SAYING THAT NINTENDO IS NOT INNOVATIVE, BUT TO ALWAYS SAY THAT ALL MICROSOFT AND SONY DO IS COPY OFF OF CONCEPTS THAT NINTENDO innovation bring's to the market is not only Arrogant, but is quite untrue! its the same for every freaking company.

and which bring's up my point  the game boy camera was  not known for being the first, it was known as the smallest on a mobile  at the time for a handheld! the one for springboard was larger and was a lil bulky to say the least. . Nintendo was first to release it in the smallest form factor! that's why the

The Game Boy Camera was featured in the 1999 edition of Guinness World Records for being the world's smallest digital camera, though this record has since been broken. they @ Nintendo were not the first to do it, that was HP!

Okay, but it is possibly the smallest and first. The GB one was officially released prior to the handspring one. When talking about this, we need to set the goalposts correctly.

Also, not only is the line there blurred (reveal vs release), but one is in the context of gaming and the other isn't.

"but one is in the context of gaming and the other isn't."

Since when would Gaming matter to that of a point of the concept? the Hardware or method was invented and then the Method was expanded on it's use, that's what innovation is. Its not the invention of itself its the expansion of said method's use! to say that two people or two comapny cannot see the same idea for such a use and that one is copying the concept of another is like saying that a car breaks down in ohio and one in Mexico. one has a women driving and one has a male driver. both have a problem that the Fan belt broke. both see this problem because the Lady has to get her stocking's off  maybe slower than the guy with the belt to uses as a quick fix fan belt does that mean because the guy got his out first that the lady copied the guy's use for a belt , and instead she used her stocking? No it just means they both developed a process to fix the issue at hand. the stocking is less resistence to cutting but more ability to stretch, while the belt has less stretching but more ability to resis cutting. both fix the issue but one is not the same as the other.

there is no goal post's its not the first because HP has

http://www.google.com/patents/US5768163

Like i said Innovation is not the same as invention they are very close in How they innovate but one is more on creative of said method, and the other is more on the creative use of said method or expansion of said created Method. both is at its heart Innovative use of creation! but both are not a copy of each other.

The patent says this, and is not restricted to cameras:

The application of the camera would be very important. The only thing that links the GB camera to this patent is the fact that they are both handhelds, but the topic at hand was not even about handhelds, it was about the use of cameras in the context of console gaming (handheld or home console).

That's a very significant difference. To me at least. If you want, we can agree to disagree. But it would be like you talking about the propeller, and me talking about helicopters.