Has anyone who says that tablets are going to kill games ever tried to play a game on a tablet? Many times it does not seem recognize my hand -- its a WiFi iPad2 (I can't remember if it has 16G or 32G).

Phones are even worse. Those writing these articles forget how quickly batteries drain when playing games .. or searching for a signal when traveling.

Mike from Morgantown

Will PC disrupt home consoles?

Yes, because the media will tell everyone that PS Vita costs too much at $250 and 3DS is too much at $170 but the iPad 3 is priced just right at $599 & 699.

I read in a thread yesterday about disruption and one of those strategies being "downstream dispruption". Apple is going way above and beyond by not just doing downstream, but going right off the cliff side and down the waterfall by completely ditching all traditional control schemes and opting for all touch gaming with little to no tactile feedback.

The Apple take over is among us.

iPhone and iTouch was phase 1 and it badly wounded Nintendo and Sony. Now we have phase 2 and that will land the mortal blow. Just you wait for phase 3. the new Apple TV. Once that happens it is Game Over folks.

1. iPad mini will never happen. Slashing the display size of the iPad in half would ruin the interface and appearance of many apps and for what? Competing against a loss-leader focused on selling books. Not worth it.

2. iPad 2 will probably remain on the market with a price cut, but to $250-300? No way. Probably $400 for the base model, maybe $350 if Apple really feels like putting pressure on the few tablets which have managed to gain market traction.

3. Tablets and handheld consoles are really only competing in the broadest sense that both are mobile and both can be entertaining. Smartphones remain the most dangerous threat to handheld consoles, and it's a threat that the 3DS at least seems to be weathering.

Right now I stand by my position that while surging mobile computing hasn't been the death blow to handheld consoles that some predicted, it has put a damper on the market and stolen its growth away. Just look at VGC handheld console totals for the past few years (had to add GBA shipment figures linked below, WTF VGC?):

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/library/historical_data/pdf/consolidated_sales_e1112.pdf

2004: 20.9 million units
2005: 36.0 million units
2006: 38.6 million units
2007 (year of the iPhone): 46.6 million units
2008 (year of the App Store and Android): 41.5 million units
2009: 37.9 million units
2010: 31.0 million units
2011: 31.1 million units

Saturation of old models and rising hardware prices on new models? Maybe. But don't be shocked if the next couple years show that dedicated handheld consoles have peaked.

There was a time when gaming in general was childish, nerdish etc.

If we take a look the other way around, the market is expanding like hell in the last few years.

We could have a win-win situation instead of a win-lose situation. More people are playing mobile games than ever before and some of the new "i-casuals" could buy a Vita for homeconsole-experience on the go, too. No statistic convinced me that it is a win-lose situation so far.

As aforementioned the situation could very well be like the PC vs console battle in the 90s,... "with the new graphic-cards slaughtering the console market, like the consoles did with the arcade." We know how that ended.

The Ipad is a portable Pc, is not a hh console.
I, as an old school gamer , will never buy an Ipad for gaming.........

If the previous 2 iPads didn't stall momentum, why would a 3rd?

So people would pay $600 dollars to play old, ripoff versions of original games that can be played properly on a $169.99 VIDEO GAME device?

No!