Will Nintendo enter Mobile phone market?

[celine]

FishyJoe said:
Nintendo is the #1 publisher of games designed for a small screen with low memory and processor requirements. It probably sells more than the next five competitors combined. Think about how many games they have already created for the GBA that would take minimal effort to port to a phone. All those GBA games could still net billions of dollars simply by making them available to a phone.

Q8

Today, many people carry a cell phone with them whenever they go out. Do you think that, in the future, people will be willing to carry around two or three portable devices with them? If Nintendo’s portable device cannot be the 1st nor even the 2nd device to be carried around, are you willing to offer your software content to the 1st device? Or, will you start making cell phones, say, DS Phone, and try to survive as a platform holder?

A8

Iwata: First of all, I personally do not think that people will carry around only one device. I have an engineer’s background and love to try anything new. I am the typical person to be the first in line to purchase anything when other companies introduce something interesting. After trying out many versatile machines myself, I always feel that it is very difficult to use these multi-functional devices. In my analysis, the more functions one device can perform, the more potential users are eliminated. When we look around at devices that are accepted by the general public as popular, few of them offer complex multifunctional capabilities. It looks like these popular devices have been created to be lean by people who are talented in figuring out “how to beautifully trim fat.” So, I cannot imagine that, in the future, a single portable device will be able to provide every need for all the daily issues people have, and I do not share a vision that DS has to be merged with cell phones in the future. Of course, we do not know how cell-phone technologies will evolve and what kind of business structure will emerge in the future. I cannot say with 100% assurance that Nintendo’s future will never intersect with that of the phone business. But as far as the structure of today’s phone business is concerned, Nintendo does not have much interest. As to the question, “Will Nintendo become a dedicated software provider if its device cannot take a leading position,” I can never imagine a situation where Takeda and Nagai will have to lose their jobs. Nintendo’s unique strength lies in the fact that both hardware development teams and software development teams are working in the same building and sharing the same unique philosophy of trying to always create unique and unprecedented entertainment which will surprise people in a meaningful way. Nintendo is clearly much stronger when we can combine both hardware and software development than when we have to focus on software. I just cannot think of any reason why we would abandon a weapon which brings us such a great advantage. I just cannot imagine Nintendo’s future as a dedicated software content provider.

Long life to the President.