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HappySqurriel on 08 August 2012
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Soundwave said:

Nintendo, whether they want to admit it or not at some point is going to have to face up and come up with an answer to the rising cell phone/tablet market or watch their handheld stronghold eventually erode away piece by piece. We're getting to the point now where even young kids are going to get very capable smartphones at age 7-9.

No one is going to buy a Nintendo phone, they're going to have to eventually partner with someone who has established infrastructure in that area. Why not Sony?

We're looking too much through the prism of "well Sony/Nintendo are rivals for so long, I can't see them together", but honestly I think it makes a lot of sense if they can come to the right agreement on profit/revenue sharing. IMO, Sony would have to give Nintendo a nice sweetheart deal to win them over.

And yes, I think most everyone is aware that Sony + Nintendo had an agreement for a CD-ROM. That deal was signed actually in 1988, 24 years ago. That's ancient history, times change. If Sony can work with Panasonic on TVs (their sworn rival for 40+ years), breaking bread with Nintendo is no big deal, in fact it's the type of thinking both companies need to embrace in the changing, ever more harsh gaming market.

Microsoft is looking at the state Sony is in right now and having tasted success with Kinect and is licking their chops for the next-generation, knowing they can outspend both Sony and Nintendo to their heart's content. 

I don't see how everyone having a smartphone is any different than everyone having a PC ... The greatest growth in the home console market came at the same time as the greatest growth in the home PC market.

Nintendo doesn't need to produce a phone any more than they needed to produce a PC in the 1990s; what they need to do is continue to focus on asymmetries in the market that allow them to produce better gaming experience than can be provided on a cell phone today. One of their biggest advantages is in user interface design as few cellphone companies will add buttons or analogue sticks simply (or any other user interface elements) to benefit gamers, and few smartphone developers will target user interface elements that are not available in most phones.