3DS is cannibalizing Wii U

[Soundwave]

nitekrawler1285 said:

Soundwave said:

The GBA really didn't compete with the iPod to be honest, iPod was just taking off in 2003, when Nintendo was winding the GBA down. And even there, really the iPod wasn't an interactive entertainment device, it was more of a replacement for the Discman as it mostly just played music. 

Smartphones were a bit of a slow burner at first, and so was the "app idea", the first gaming app that was a blockbuster was Angry Birds and that didn't come out until the end of 2009. Then the iPad arrived in 2010. And Android in that same time frame too. That's really the point where iOS/Android started to rock the game industry and the effects started to become very noticable. 

GBA did rather well until it was cut short by the DS rising.  DS didn't really start rising until lite and NSMB in the middle of 06.  Either way the point is Nintendo can compete against other forms of entertainment.  They just have to focus making something compelling and different enough to create a new value proposition.  For them that tends to be new ways of playing games.  Chasing the other competitors markets(iPhone/Pad/Adroid/ PS360) is a losing proposition that they suck at. It makes their offers quite literally more of the same experience. 

Nintendo honestly was doing fine up until about 2010. 

The iOS store didn't even open until the end of July 2008 and then it took about a year to really rev up and for people to understand the idea of downloading apps and not just using the phone as is out of the box. Angry Birds came out in December of 2009. 

2009/2010 is where smartphones hit critical mass, and the introduction of the iPad and the rise of Android devices kicked the market into warp drive. That's where the damage really started in earnest. 

It's crazy how intuitively kids get an iPad too. Putting one in front of a kid is like putting a fish in water.