I'm always a fan of food for thought, even if the taste test doesn't tickle my taste buds.
But Forbes' Brian Caulfield did exactly that with this week's "Why Apple Could Kill Nintendo DS" article.
His theory is that the iPod touch and the iPhone could threaten the handheld gaming dominance of the DS. It's a ludicrous notion, though I'll give him props for pointing out how Apple's
Unfortunately for Apple, the similarities end there.
Nintendo's DS offers a clever dual-screen format, with a protective clamshell design, but that's not a deal-breaker for Apple. Nintendo got by on a single screen for ages. Sony
The bigger obstacle for Apple as a force in portable gaming is the lack of buttons. You can't get away with a portable gaming device that lacks directional controls. Apple's touch screen just won't cut it. If you think typing on the iPhone's touch-screen keyboard is a chore, imagine trying to get the kind of responsiveness required for a video game out of the same screen.
The iPhone and iPod touch will do just fine for motion-based games like Super Monkey Ball or arcade classics like Marble Madness and Glover. But they will fail everywhere else.
You don't want to pick a fight with Super Mario
Slaying the DS will never be easy, because if you pick a fight with Super Mario, he's going to bring his friends Donkey Kong, Pikachu, Link, and Metroid, too. Since Nintendo happens to own many of its most popular character games, it is protective enough to avoid porting them over to rival platforms.
Microsoft
If anything, it is Microsoft's Xbox gaming experience that makes it a more viable threat to Nintendo than Apple. Microsoft is also desperate enough -- having sold just 2 million Zune players since the Zune’s inception nearly two years ago -- to push the issue of repositioning its media player as a next-generation handheld gaming console. It may have many of the same physical limitations as Apple in design, but at least Microsoft knows it has little to lose in getting its head into the game, since there are so few fans to alienate.
|
First Quarter 2008 |
Market Share |
|---|---|
|
Apple iPod |
71% |
|
SanDisk |
11% |
|
Zune |
4% |
|
Creative |
2% |
Source: NPD Group
More reasons to call a truce
Young teens, who make up a good chunk of the handheld gaming audience, are unlikely to be carrying around high-end iPhones. They have iPods, but they are likely to own the more rugged -- and cheaper -- iPod nanos, classics, and shuffles instead of the iPod touch.
The iPod touch or the cell phone contract-shackled iPhone are too costly to justify as gaming gadgetry for kids, even if the convergence of portable appliances makes a catchall unit appealing, and even if recent Nintendo DS titles like Nintendogs and Brain Age have opened up the demographics to an older, diverse audience.
This doesn't mean that Apple won't try. It certainly would raise the stakes in terms of specs, given its superior storage capacity to the cartridge-based DS. I just think that Apple has bigger fish to fry, and it knows it.
Apple is likely to swing the door open wide for software makers during next week's Worldwide Developers Conference. That is where Steve Jobs will deliver the keynote address come Monday, ripe with everyone speculating on the specs of the new iPhone.
Don't expect Apple to put on much of a game face. I am sure that the future will have some pretty neat diversions programmed for iPhone and iPod touch owners. However, when you see Activision
Apple is going to revolutionize the wireless communications industry the way it remade the digital music category. Just don't hold your breath if you expect it ever to be a threat to Nintendo's portable gaming dominance.
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