Why are gaming companies so intent on making games for Iphone/Ipod touch?

[mrstickball]

Gojimaster said:

Akvod said:
Low cost+High Revenue=Big profits

But how many coopies of these games is the Ipod actually selling?  I haven't ever seen charts for Ipod.  Games on Ipod are going to have to sell way more copies to recoup a profit because they sell at such a low price point.  And how can games for Iphone be any more low cost than DS games?  Many of them are direct ports. 

I'm still having trouble seeing how games selling for $3-10 are profitable than games selling than games selling for $30.  The DS sells in high volume, does the Ipod exceed that volume or something?

Here are a few points for you:

1. The iPhone/iPod Touch has a user base of ~70 million units, if not more. Its selling faster than the DS is, currently. The iPhone shipped 8.7 million units in Q4 of 2009. The DS sold 11.9 million. That doesn't include iPod Touches which sold well over the gap of 3.2 million.
2. Games are selling fairly well on the iPhone. The Sims 3 has sold about 1 million copies so far between $6.99 and $9.99. Grand Theft Auto sold about 250,000 copies within 2 weeks of being on the iPhone @ $9.99, and Plants vs. Zombies sold 300,000 units in just 4 days. 
3. Publisher profit margins are much better on the iPhone. On the DS, you have to pay for expensive carts, Nintendo royalty fees, retailer margins, and more. On the iPhone, its simply Apples 30% cut and your 70%. In all actuality, if you sell a DS game at $20 and an iPhone game at $9.99, your making slightly less on the iPhone game.
4. Development costs are cheaper. Since its Mac based, you simply need an Apple computer to start working on iPhone games. As you said, many of the titles are direct ports, which cost almost nothing to make. Not a bad value proposition.