| famousringo said: Oh, and I forgot to mention that, according to NPD, the iTunes music store now has 25% of all music sales in the US, and 69% of all online music sales. And I wouldn't call the iPhone a DS killer, but I do wonder if Iwata is going to start being more reluctant to show his off.  |
I don't think the iPhone is a DS killer, but the rise of the Smartphone is. And 10 years from now, they will be the DS2 killer.
I, along with a few other VGC-ers are working on producing market reports for smartphone gaming in the near future. It's a very interesting market, and it's growing at a frantic pace. The iPhone gaming market is larger than any of the consoles' downloadable gaming services (XBLA, PSN, WiiWare/VC), and it's done it in a matter of 1 year. Thats just 1 service among 3 phones that share a tiny sliver of the mobile phone market. The overall phone market download service (that's games, apps, ringtones, and other such things) is valuated at >$100 billion USD - twice that of gaming.
For example, The Sims 3 has become a million-selling game on the iPhone in just 1 month. That's very indicative of the power smartphones have. As phones become more de-balkanized with fewer operating systems (with OSX, Android, Symbian, WinMo and RIM being major players), we'll see more and more gaming sales, as phones have easier one-shot solutions that developers can back more commonly.
I argue with TheSource about it all the time on IM. I'm a firm believer in the fact that smartphones will rival handhelds in both marketshare and revenue in 10 years - kind of in the same way we see PC and consoles fighting (as well as consoles/PCs fighting portable devices like the DS/PSP and laptop/netbooks).
At least for myself, I find using my phone for gaming a bit more convenient than my DS, because I always have my phone on me. The games have similar graphical qualities. Once the market matures, and we see bigger better games, it's going to be a great market to buy games on.
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
