KBG29 said:
Becuase Handhelds compete with Smartphones and Tablets, and without it they are nearly at the point of extinction. It honestly blows me away every time I have this discussion on gaming forums. People seriously don't want gaming devices to survive. Every time this industry trys to progress it recieves backlash from the gaming community. Now, people complain about the lack of quality games, and new experiences. Well were did that come from? Gamers unreal expectations, that somehow, magically, games will be made for the 10 Million people that are willing to by dedicated gaming devices. Not only will those games be made, but they will be incredible experiences. Sorry, but that is not going to happen. If we continue to take a stance against the growth of the industry, then there will be not future for great gaming devices. We will be stuck with over priced devices, that also happen to play really bad games. But, hey, as far as I see from the hate on Motion, VR, Wii, PS3, PS Vita, and Xbox One, that is exactly what the gaming community wants. |
If you are going to compare this to a mobile device, then it would be more similar in use case to a tablet, not a smartphone. Consumers are not going to choose NS to be in their pockets over a smartphone even if NS did have cellular connectivity. But a tablet is something that may very well be more or less a direct competitor depending on how Nintendo supports applications and/or is based on Android (if at all).
Tablets are also all the apps but no cellular. That is the expectation to the masses. Cellular enabled tablets are not the big sellers as consumers don't care about that on a tablet-like device.
1. They don't want to add a new line and its cost to their cellular company just for a tablet.
2. They don't want to pay more for the cellular enabled version.
3. They don't want to have shorter battery lives due to the additional cellular radio drain.
4. Nintendo wouldn't want the additional cost and complications with supporting differing cellular bands for the whole world. Most hardware manufactures create different versions of the same phone to sell in different markets just to solve this disparity.
It just doesn't make sense. Especially, when all you need to do is enable your wifi hotspot on your smartphone that is already in your pocket.
It isn't hampering growth or otherwise. Its just doesn't make sense from a cost, complexity perspective to Nintendo (or any hardware manufacturer) and tablets have already demonstrated that consumers don't want it in that type of device.
When cellular is a flat rate for any number of devices and world-wide is using the same common technology, then we'll see it become common place like wifi radios. Until then, any manufacturer will bet on wifi and consumers smart enough to turn on their phone's hotspot.
