| Wyrdness said: DS gets a mention for a non gaming impact people aren't aware of, it's actually responsible for the smart phone down to even the execution of apps as a number of DS software were simple apps, DS was effectively a pseudo smart phone era that prepared people for the smartphone era. Steve Jobs picked up on this following the failed Apple and Motorola collab and felt a the touch interface would along with other tech enable a vision he had in mind starting with the iPod Touch. |
I would say that PalmPilot makes a much closer relative to the smartphone when it comes to non-gaming. It predates the DS by nearly a decade, and it had a stylus touchscreen and already had an interface quite similar to the current day "page of app icons". Although Palm sold maybe 4 times less units than the DS, it did become pretty well-known, although I have to admit it didn't spring to my mind when recalling ancestors of the modern smartphone. If you think of a smartphone as primarily a device for running apps, then the DS is more of a detour; but the DS absolutely did advance mobile touchscreen gaming by leaps and bounds.
