http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2008/06/05/apple-wont-kill-nintendo.aspx
Someone else has also written a well thought arguement. I really doubt Nintendo is even thinking of worrying.
Apple Won't Kill Nintendo
I'm always a fan of food for thought, even if the taste test doesn't tickle my taste buds.
But Forbes' Brian Caulfield did exactly that with this week's "Why Apple Could Kill Nintendo DS" article.
His theory is that the iPod touch and the iPhone could threaten the handheld gaming dominance of the DS. It's a ludicrous notion, though I'll give him props for pointing out how Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) gadgets combine two of Nintendo's (OTC BB: NTDOY.PK) most distinctive video gaming features -- a motion-based controller like the Wii console and a touch screen like the portable DS.
Unfortunately for Apple, the similarities end there.
Nintendo's DS offers a clever dual-screen format, with a protective clamshell design, but that's not a deal-breaker for Apple. Nintendo got by on a single screen for ages. Sony (NYSE: SNE) is also holding up well with its uni-screen PSP.
The bigger obstacle for Apple as a force in portable gaming is the lack of buttons. You can't get away with a portable gaming device that lacks directional controls. Apple's touch screen just won't cut it. If you think typing on the iPhone's touch-screen keyboard is a chore, imagine trying to get the kind of responsiveness required for a video game out of the same screen.
The iPhone and iPod touch will do just fine for motion-based games like Super Monkey Ball or arcade classics like Marble Madness and Glover. But they will fail everywhere else.
You don't want to pick a fight with Super Mario
Slaying the DS will never be easy, because if you pick a fight with Super Mario, he's going to bring his friends Donkey Kong, Pikachu, Link, and Metroid, too. Since Nintendo happens to own many of its most popular character games, it is protective enough to avoid porting them over to rival platforms.
Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) has Halo. Apple has nothing more than the halo effect. It will be at the mercy of third-party developers, who will have to wonder if this is a market worth fighting for.
If anything, it is Microsoft's Xbox gaming experience that makes it a more viable threat to Nintendo than Apple. Microsoft is also desperate enough -- having sold just 2 million Zune players since the Zune’s inception nearly two years ago -- to push the issue of repositioning its media player as a next-generation handheld gaming console. It may have many of the same physical limitations as Apple in design, but at least Microsoft knows it has little to lose in getting its head into the game, since there are so few fans to alienate.
360 Tag - narfwack
