Did Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Latest News about Apple know what the future held when CEO Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone during his Macworld Expo keynote in January 2007? They probably had some sense of it, but they likely had no idea that games would become such a big part of the platform, especially considering the outsider status of gaming on the Mac. The company is clearly ready to take full advantage of the current situation, however, as evidenced by the recent iPod touch ad that focuses solely on games.
While many games are of a casual nature, however, some developers are pushing the envelope with games that can take a while to play through and offer a high level of replay value. As the iPhone games market matures, comparisons with the Nintendo Latest News about Nintendo DS and Sony (NYSE: SNE) Latest News about Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) handhelds are inevitable.
“I don’t think the iPhone will compete with the DS or PSP, but everyone forgets the iPod touch,” said Morrison. “That’s Apple’s flagship iPod. It’s clear all new iPods are going to be based on the touch in some way. In a few years, the iPod touches will probably outnumber the DS and PSP combined, 10-to-one. That will be the platform to completely dominate the handheld market. This Christmas, parents are not probably buying too many iPhones, but you had better believe they are buying touches.”
Adams, who said the iPhone install base “is going to be huge” and who thinks “the iPhone will rival the PSP and DS,” compared Apple’s handheld to something else: “The iPhone is the Wii Latest News about Wii of handheld gaming devices. It has such unique input systems, and just enough different focus to stand out from the traditional systems. Like how the Wii has turned into the console ‘for the rest of us’ (my mother-in-law plays Wii Bowling when we’re together for the holidays!), the iPhone and iPod touch are the handheld gaming systems for people who wouldn’t consider buying a DS. And any core gamer that does own a DS or PSP is probably going to get an iPhone if they don’t already have one.”
I don’t see the iPod Touch having much impact against the DS among young gamers because of the high price. You can get the DS for only $129 and the PSP for about $169. However, the cheapest iPod Touch I can find is $229. I don’t see a parent handing one of those to anyone under 12 years old. As a parent with 6 and 7 year olds, the DS is cheap enough that if it got lost or destroyed I could easily afford a new one. Not so much with a $229 iPod Touch. Still, maybe Apple has a cheaper 4 gig system waiting to be released.
I don’t see the iPod Touch having much impact against the DS among young gamers because of the high price.
If Baby wants it Baby gets it.
Nobody kicks Baby in a corner.
Not a chance as of yet. They are different markets. I have a PSP, DS, and iPod Touch, and they all are different. The PSP has a much stronger media experience with a bigger screen, the DS has a broad control scheme with both console controls and touchscreen, and the iPod has a rich media experience with a touchscreen.
They all three balance the others weaknesses. The iPod is great for casual games, but when I’m sitting bored and have all three, it would be my last choice for gaming, first choice for media. The PSP with the ungainly disks was a pain to carry around for casual gaming, but the ability to download games to it has led me to fill up an 8 GB card with games and ditch the disks. The DS used to by my casual gaming king that I could just toss in my pocket and go. Apple will find as Sony has that the DS’s place as the most sold console of all time will be hard to unseat. I think the DSi, while a disappointingly small upgrade, will reinvigorate the DS as a platform. Nintendo sure sucked for awhile, they really got it together with the DS and the Wii. Now they have to continue to innovate and not stagnate or someone like, oh, say, Apple will come along and knock them on their ass.
Just to add to Vonchiz’s comment, a touchscreen will never be able to replace the actual control available with a PSP.
Cheaper iPod Touch in January, no doubt. MAcWorld is coming – which means (maybe) new product intros – but, price cuts very likely.
Nintendo will never lose it’s edge. What has always happened is, if a platform deserved enough merit for games, gamers bought one and added it to their collection. The losers were the ones that didn’t produce enough great games to pass the critical point of “must have”.
Another interesting scenario as of late is that teens here are loaning their (full size) systems and games to each other to cut down on the expense.
I don’t see a touchscreen-only platform displacing the PSP or the DS. There are some categories of games that just don’t translate well to that control scheme. Even something as simple as Dig-Dug doesn’t work well (IMHO) on the Touch.
You mean just like a touchscreen will never be able to replace a physical keyboard on a smartphone as some purist were crowing 2 years ago. That was proven wrong, and depending on Apple, your statement will also be proven wrong as well.
Will only make a difference for “Pod People” – the rest of us are IMMUNE TO JOB’S “REALITY DISTORTION FIELD” !!!
The iPod Touch is not as durable as a DS. I can’t imagine a parent buying a touch for someone under ten and not expect its glass screen to broken within weeks. Also, the iPods are not designed for people to swap out batteries, unlike the DS and PSP. I think for certain types of games, the iPods may start to lead on, but I can’t see these becoming the leading platform for the under 16 crowd.
The point is this… How many will have an Ipod? Most of these will turn into touches as above states. Thus the platform will be in peoples hands. As Wii proved it is not about graphics but cool new controls so it has a shot. As for the under 16 crowd i don’t think that is the target market for games anymore. Point is they can leverage all the people who want an Ipod and an Iphone and all of a sudden have a pretty good gaming platform in their hands. as for battery I have invested in one of those little AA attachments for my Iphone actually works very well. And I use rechargeable AA’s so cost is low to use the Iphone for an over seas flight with no issues.
Give the DS an accelerometer and it will fuck the iPod.
The traditional gaming market? No.
The “I only carry one device” market? Yes.
Just as the best camera is the one you have with you, the best gaming device is the one you have with you.
It will be fine for casual gamers.
But not for the hardcore gamer and very young kids.
Apple products are not durable enough and cheaply replacable unless you make over 100k a year net.
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I think that Nintendo and Sony will have no problems from Apple. Couple reasons…
-Nintendo’s been making handhelds for almost two decades. They’ve outlasted all the competition so far, including the N-Gage and all other phones.
-Nintendo and Sony both have download stores on their big consoles. They have the “App Store” model already up and running. There’s no reason why they can’t expand it to the portables. The only hindrance I see is the size of the games. But, that’s a double-edged blade. Apple can’t get big gaming developers to release larger, non-casual games for their devices. I can’t see Capcom making a Megaman ZX game for the Touch/iPhone.
-Apple has never been a game platform maker. When people think Apple, they don’t think gaming. When people think gaming, they don’t think Apple.
-There are no buttons on the Touch or iPhone. You have no way to control characters aside from rudimentary touching and moving the device around. I have a feeling the reaction to the games on either device will be somthing like, “ooo look, another tilting game.”
At most, casual games will appear from Apple, but it won’t do anything the DS’s or PSP’s sales.
How ironic. The two iPod Touches I Purchased for my children arrived today. I actually think the TCO of the device costs less that the Nintendo DS. Games are a couple of bucks, and have a variety of price points, for example free… The DS is expensive… Used DS games, cost more than iTunes App Store games.
My seven year old has been playing Rogue, the old unix port, refigured for the iPod. He seems to understand its gesture support in ways I don’t.
Oh, BTW, I was replacing two Nintendo DS devices, because the hinge broke on them.
Does that rhyme with anything?
“I actually think the TCO of the device costs less that the Nintendo DS. Games are a couple of bucks, and have a variety of price points, for example free… The DS is expensive… Used DS games, cost more than iTunes App Store games.”
I actually took that into consideration when I was thinking about getting one for my son, but then I realized that if the Touch ever became a “real” gaming platform, the prices would have to go way up.
There is simply no way Sega will sell a complete Sonic game for five bucks. Nor will THQ or Activision, who have locks on nearly every TV show or movie ever made.
Thus, if the Touch ever did become a “real” gaming platform, the prices of games would have to rise accordingly.
If Apple forces game prices to remain low, the large gaming publishers will stay away, which will drive business to the DS and PSP, keeping Apple nothing more than a niche player.
#17
Actually, they are going to do full games. Sega’s super monkey ball game has already sold over 300,000 copies so far.
Software companies are finding out that it’s cheaper to develop games for the ipod/iphone and that they have a higher profit margin than with traitional consoles since they don’t do packaging and instead do direct DL.
That’s why Nintendo rushed with a SD card slot.
“Actually, they are going to do full games.”
Who are they, Sega? Full games for 5 dollars? 10 dollars? I’ll believe it when I see it.
And what about THQ and Activision? All those movie and TV licenses cost money. I don’t see that working for 10 bucks per full game.
My point is that any price advantage the Touch has for gaming is temporary. And even if it is permanent because the games are delivered without packaging at a lower cost, both the PSP and the new DS will have the same internet capabilities. So once again, there will not be any price advantage in favor of the Touch.
#19,
Have you seen the xbox 360??? Thay have a download game service where they sell metric ass loads of full games for the $5 and $10 mark. According to some website that claims to track the numbers, Microsoft has sold about a billion dollars worth of games though their download service over the life of the 360 so far.
Need for Speed is releasing to Apps store in next month or so and that is a full racing game. Looks like the price will be about $15 or about the price of a used DS game…
I’d say the market is there.
Here is the rub though… I was just at grocery store and wanted to call about ingredients… And AT&T + iPhone dont work at the grocery store either… LOL
In fact Sega has sold over 500,000 copies of its Super Monkey Ball game at $9.95 each.
The iPhone/iPod Touch AppStore recently passed a milestone with over 10,000 applications available and over 300 million downloaded Apps.
The iPhone version of the high end flight simulator X Plane is a pretty amazing App and works well with the accelerometer controls:
To see some of the top selling Apps that are available, visit
appshopper.com
What ever this device’s future will be, it is getting there in a hurry.
MS has been making Win Mobile for quite some time. Apple destroyed them in a little over a year.
Apple has never been a smart phone maker either, but it didn’t stop the iphone from record setting sales. Don’t under estimate Apple. MS did and now they are scrambling to catch up.
#22,
“MS has been making Win Mobile for quite some time. Apple destroyed them in a little over a year.”
Im not sure Microsoft ever saw the potential for the handheld in the consumer market. Judging by apples utter failure to have App store in the early iPhones and iPod Touch store (not even six months old) Im not sure Apple saw the demand potenital here.
That first year the iPhone was all about the (crappy) mobile Safari (the real internet guffaw!). Then the iPhone 3G shipped and all anyone has written about since is the Apps store.
As far as I am concerned (having a cost basis of $125 in Apple stock) Apple could abandon the Phone potion of the iPhone (face it as a phone its horrible, the worst phone ive ever used in many years) and concentrate on the media delivery capabilities of the iPod Touch.
I don’t think anyone saw the potential of this device, let alone Apple…
#22
I wasn’t talking Windows Mobile, something that isn’t the companies main focus. Windows has been mainly focused on desktop development. Nintendo has been focused totally on games since the 80s. Apple has never been focused on games, and will likely never focus on games.
???
Mobile Safari was and is the best mobile browser out there. 3G or no 3G, no one even comes close.
Just another apple worshiper slurping all things steve jobs.
No, there’s no chance in hell the touch EVER comes close to touching the DS – EVER.
A total and completely ridiculous assertion to even suggest as such.