Reasons why the iPhone as a gaming device will never take off:
-Device limitations. The iPhone has no face buttons or D-pad and does not accept external storage media (flash cartridges, etc.) The device also has a touchscreen which requires the use of bare hands, making precise touchscreen effects (as the DS stylus is capable of) impossible.
-Little software support. The iPhone as a gaming device will not break into the Japanese market, since it's made by an American company, and Western developers have already picked either the PSP or DS to support. Finally, Apple does not have an internal game development house, meaning they're entirely at the mercy of third parties. (As a note, no company without an internal dev studio has ever succeeded in entering either the console or handheld market.)
-Too expensive. At $400 + a yearly contract, nobody will buy it for gaming when the alternatives are a $130 DS or a $170 PSP, each of which have a sizable game library to their credit.
"'Casual games' are something the 'Game Industry' invented to explain away the Wii success instead of actually listening or looking at what Nintendo did. There is no 'casual strategy' from Nintendo. 'Accessible strategy', yes, but ‘casual gamers’ is just the 'Game Industry''s polite way of saying what they feel: 'retarded gamers'."
-Sean Malstrom
