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richardhutnik on 11 August 2011
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ioi said:
kowenicki said:


Wow, I think you are miles off there...

My wife is a very casual gamer, she had a DS that she bought and occasionaly played... now she has an iphone.  Shes happy with the iphone and using my ipad2, she would never biuy a dedicated handheld ever again.  There will be millions just like this.

Also, I agree with what you yourself say "3-4 years from now almost everyone will have a tablet by their side".  That, along with smartphones, will be enough for the vast majority of people when it comes to handheld gaming. 


YOUR iPad 2. Does she like playing the games enough to fork out £500 to buy one for herself at this stage?

In the short term, how many people spending £140 on a 3DS are going to consider a £400-500 iPad as an alternative?

Also, I think the consideration of a tablet as a handheld gaming machine is misguided. Of course the iPad is portable but I think it is more in competition with a PS4 than a PSV. I think most people using a tablet at the moment do so at home, not so much on the move. When the direct linkup to TV comes in the next year or two, tablets will be seen as a controller for the TV or a way of having your own version of what is showing on the TV - pretty much exactly what Nintendo are targetting with WiiU.

I think the issue here is considering tablets as being in competition with portable gaming machines rather than all gaming machines.

Thing is that people buy a smart phone or tablet, for other reasons, and the games go along with it.  This is similar to what you have in regards to owning a computer.  For someone who isn't a core gamer, they will end up being happy with Angry Birds.  Games are a pleasant distraction to help wind down, kill some time, and so on.  People get tablets as a luggable device to access documents, and the Internet, rather than use a computer.  For myself, I will be looking into getting an Android tablet later this year, because I need to bring rules for games I created with me, and not printing out pages and pages of PDFs to lug around.  End result of my need for this, it makes me ponder getting a 3DS or even a Vita.  Getting those would be in addition to what I need for more pressing matters.  And if resources are limited for me, it comes to practical need over core gaming want.