As others have already stated, I don't believe the 23 million iTouch number. A source would be nice. iTouch numbers seem to be hard to find anyway. One thing to remember regarding the LTD iTouch numbers is that the update to iPhone OS 2.0 is not free for owners of older iTouches, so not all of those devices are even capable of downloading from the App Store.
But, on another note, here's an interesting article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122644912858819085.html
Some key points from the article:
-Nearly 2000 games available in the App Store already.
-According to Simon Jeffery, the U.S. president of Sega: "games sold via the App Store are the most profitable in terms of any of the formats we work on"
-Super Monkey Ball has sold more than 500 000 copies to date.
-over 200 million downloads from the App Store, about quarter of which are games. Most downloads are for free.
-Id Software is developing 2 titles for iPhone/iTouch
I think those are perhaps the most interesting points, although Carmack also goes on to note that the lack of physical buttons is limiting and the lack of tactile feedback makes on-screen buttons less effective because players' fingers tend to drift off.
I feel that the most important comment overall is what Simon Jeffrey said. If iPhone+AppStore indeed is the most profitable platform, it is going to draw in developers, no matter what else happens. I don't think that the revenue of profits can yet challenge dedicated gaming platforms, so Jeffrey must mean the ROI. Hopefully some companies will put in money and effort to make games that have quality content and a lot of it, and I hope they will find an audience to buy their games so that the overall industry will continue to grow.
