Microsoft computer accessories and Windows mobile are both struggling.

[mrstickball]

bdbdbd said:
@Mrstickball: Yes. That's why PC:s drove consoles, DVD players, CD players and phones out of the market. And that's why PS3 is dominating the sales charts.

Let's go 20 or 25 years back in time and look how much future consoles had back then, because of all the things you could do with a computer. The current interest in smartphones is because there's a growing market for applications. And because everyone is flocking there, in a few years they are starting to get burned because the market doesn't grow as fast as the developer interest and the budget of the projects grow.

Yet smartphones are outpacing traditional mobile phone growth by a decently strong margin. I don't think anyone anticipates smartphones to have 100% of the marketshare. However, they will continue to make up a larger portion of the marketplace.

I'd also ask you how long smartphones have even been considered a gaming device - the iTunes store for games is just over a year old - and its revenue is already as large as XBLA, VC, and PSN combined.

Because of smartphones, things we don't have after a decade:
Phones
Portable music players
Cameras
GPS navigation devices
PDA's
Calculators
Calendars
Etc.

And after two decades, we don't even have PC's anymore, because they are replaced by smartphones.
After three decdes, smartphones do your laundry and makes your coffee, so that's the end of washing machines and coffee makers. Also the gas stations cafe personnel will be unemployed because of this.

I know your trying to be sarcastic, but look at what has happened lately:

Portable music player sales have been slumping lately due to featurephone and smartphone penetration. Apple positioned their iPods to be more gaming-centric, as all new iPod touches feature the same compatability with gaming applications that the iPhone has. So for music players, they've certainly become more phone-focused.

For 'phones' - are you referring to standard phones? Do you realize how much they are being phased out for cellular devices? The adoption rate of cells has been incredible, as 90% or more of American homes have a cell subscription.

Cameras will always exist, as a cell cannot take the more professional/complex pictures. However, I'd argue that the market for low-end cameras will be completely taken over by cells within 5 years.

GPS devices will be taken over. I am unsure how long they will exist, but when I paid $0 for my turn-by-turn navigation on my cell phone, it doesn't make much sense to own an extra device that provides no extra abilities.

PDAs are already dead. They were taken over by smartphones and netbooks.

I will stick to my argument concerning cell gaming taking over the portable handheld market - there is really no reason it should not. The games are cheaper, can be better, and there is a much better reason for developers to choose the mobile platform over traditional gaming (e.g. a higher rev share than what Nintendo or Sony can ever give them).

To conclude, I offer you this:

Gaming on smartphones started off 2009 as a $100 million/yr industry. It ended the year at $500 million/yr. That is a lot of growth. More so than any other segment, sans casual, browser-based gaming on Facebook.

Next year, it will continue to see strong growth as Apple and Android, the two largest gaming-centric platforms will take away more market share from the lesser-gaming markets of WinMo Market, Ovi and BB App World.

The reason for my optimisim comes down to the de-balkanization of the cell gaming platform, which focuses on fewer operating systems, and more centralized application stores. If you did not know, cell gaming is already a $4-5 BILLION dollar/yr industry. What happens when that money is between 2 or 3 markets rather than 200-300, which has been the case for years?