Alright, so hear me out on this.

China is a relatively new market in terms of gaming, and it is one that is financially less capable than many western markets (in terms of the average person). In China, cheap Android phones dominate the gaming market, with free-to-play games being downloaded in abundance.

This leads me to think that Android microconsoles, priced at around $49.99 USD (very much possible, just look at how low high-end headset prices are in China) will fit right in in China, at least much better than any of the traditional consoles could hope to. The microconsoles would offer a plethora of free games, and the hardware would be cheap enough for most of those who can't afford a high-end headset. 

Thoughts? 

Lolll... If thats true, the OUYA will be the highest selling console this gen

What would be realistic specs for these microconsoles? 50 dollars isn't much.

Too cheap to succeed.

http://www.chinavasion.com/china/wholesale/Android_Phones/

Chinese manufacturers sell quad-core phones with HD displays for $120-200. Selling a quad-core microconsole (which has no screen or antennas) for $49.99 or even less would be relatively easy. Heck, there are microconsoles here in the US that are only $99.99. 

Urgh, technology goes fast.. I still think quad-core is quite advanced, but it really isn't anymore, is it? 

Galaxy S5, HTC M8, Nexus 5, Xperia Z2 all are quad-core (now, there are good quad-core CPUs and there are bad ones, but for the type of games most popular in China a heavy-duty CPU isn't really needed)

Well duh, I have a Nexus 5, but what I mean is that the quad-core technology has developed enough to be able to be this cheap, even for low clock speeds.

Yup, look at these phones

http://www.chinavasion.com/china/wholesale/Android_Tablets/7_Android_Tablet_PC/E-Ceros_Motion_S_Quad_Core_Android_4.2_Tablet_-_7_Inch_1024x600_Touch_Screen_1.3GHz_CPU_3G_Black/

http://www.chinavasion.com/china/wholesale/Android_Phones/Large_Screen_Android_Phones/Quad_Core_Android_3G_Mobile_Phone_-_5.5_Inch_Display_MTK6589_1.2GHz_CPU_8_Megapixel_Camera_White/

Both quad-core and around $100, take out the camera, display, and antennas and you have a $50 piece of hardware. 

Whilst true the last bit of that sentence is a big misconception. China is the top luxury goods market in the world. Forget the overall population. What you need to look at is the amount of people in China that is on an equal financial level as their western equivalent. 

If they are 300m Chinese on incomes similar to say America, the markets are equal. Even if the remaining 1bn Chinese are on skid row.

Even if the figure of those on good western size salaries are about 100m it is still a bigger market than most European countries.

Yeah, I sat through a whole seminar on this last year.

However I don't see why China can't release their own console for their own market. I don't think a cheap low spec crappy console can cut it though...