| dib8rman said: Iwata -"When I look carefully at the iPhone's users vs. the users of our Nintendo DS, I understand there are some overlaps," remarked Iwata-san, cool as a cucumber. "And if you ask 'Is the overlap too big?,' my answer is no, not so much." In that quote Iwata acknowledges that the Iseries shares traits similar to the DS however the DSi is where I see the disruptive qualities of DSi. Nintendo’s strategy is not accidental. CEO Satoru Iwata said “Some people put their money on the screen, but we decided to spend ours on the gaming experience. It’s an investment … not simply to improve the market—but to disrupt it.” This was as of 2005 and Nintendo’s goal to always disrupt, DS doesn’t represent that 2005 quote for obvious reasons but DSi does. http://www.innosight.com/blog/categories/video-games.html I would love to quote the entire thing but I’ll appreciate my white space. Finally: Iwata - “The definition for a new machine must be different. I want you to know that Nintendo is working on our next system and that system will create a gaming revolution. Internal development is underway.” The intent is to be different by value to the iSeries and to all competitors for that matter, by taking over another market that isn’t part of what the competitors see was important. The question that I ask is how large is the market that the DSi is supposed to reach, which is the same question that arose about motion controls and the philosophy behind Wii. Iwata sees the overlap, and Nintendo’s goal is to be different now, but in being different they intend to dominate. That goes for most businesses. As for the whole Digital Distribution, GDC should of been the first sign of a formation on the Nintendo front, maybe the fog of war is still hiding their troops. |
Thanks for the post, though I got a bit confused with the timeline of things. It's not really important, though, the important thing is of course the strategy that Nintendo is following. The real question in my mind is: to which extent Nintendo and Apple are on the same market(s), and to which extent is it possible for Nintendo to disrupt that/those market(s)?
Apple is coming from the computer and MP3 player markets, Nintendo is coming from home console and handheld console markets. Apple is venturing into the mobile phone market and mobile gaming market, Nintendo is going where? That is a genuine question, because I hate to admit it but I haven't been keeping close enough tabs on what Nintendo is up to. My understanding is that the DSi has added some multimedia capabilities to the mix, but I don't know if the intention is to disrupt the MP3 player market? If so, I think that's going to be extremely challenging because I don't think that market has generally been overshot, there are products for all levels. So, is Nintendo targeting the mobile phone market? That seems even more far fetched, and that market is also similarily not generally overshot.
One market that you might consider as overshot is surprisingly the computer market: most people do not need most of the things modern computers have and can do. If Nintendo is targeting that market, and there is some evidence along those lines in Wii, then it might have a chance to make a much bigger disruption on the market than it has ever experienced. Incidentally, that might be where also Apple is aiming with the iPhone and iPod Touch. However, the quotes you provided only talk about gaming and disrupting the gaming market. So I don't know what Apple should be afraid of regarding Nintendo.
