Android and the Iphone are a threat to Sony and Nintendo good reason why !

[mrstickball]

mai said:

mrstickball said:
But think about how one deploys to said carriers.

If someone wants to sell 'Final Fantasy' on a mobile, they have to:

- Build the game
- Test it on whatever phones they want it on
- Test in on whatever OS is on the phones (or multiple OSes depending)
- Get permission from carriers/negotiate revenue shares
- Negotiate with retailers like Handango (which have horrible rev-shares)
- Launch product

Whereas with a central marketplace, some of those steps - like negotiating rev share, and getting permission from carriers are taken out of the equation. Thing like that really have an impact on costs, and availability.

I'm not denying that central marketplace a-la AppStore is much better solution for developer rather than distribution chain that resembles developer-publisher-retalier model of console and handheld gaming (and the biggest part of mobile gaming infrastructure is nothing like AppStore). But at this point I can't see viable alternative among existing ones that has a chance to get big marketshare around the globe in the nearest future, on national level though that's a possibility.

So why don't you think Android, WinMo or Symbian cannot catch on with other phones? Yes, a lot of the mobiles use retail sites for downloading products, but this is slowly getting phased out - There is far more incentive for handset makers to use major OSes, as they have more features than most one-offs can.

Cells are getting more and more powerful. Eventually, they will need legitimate operating systems, rather than the simple menus that most dumbphones have. We've seen that happen, as smartphones (all with operating systems) have begun to take over the marketshare. Eventually, more and more companies will make these class of phones as the technology becomes cheaper, which reciprocates to more sales. That is when you'll see more and more handset makers, like LG choose a major OS, and give it a huge shot in the arm.

Really, the key behind such a thing is working with various countries to ensure that the app stores (both paid and free) can be utilized in said countries. Some like Korea are behind the times, but most are being worked with to allow the central app stores.