A little while ago there were a couple of gung-ho statements from Apple representatives about bright and shinny future of iPhone\iPod Touch as a gaming devices. Personally, I'm not interested in games on Apple portable devices, but I want numbers. I know these two markets (handheld consloes vs. media players) kinda uncomparable, since these devices have different specialization and consumer requirements are quite different, too.

AFAIK since the launch in the middle of 2007 till beginning of 2008 were sold 4 mln iPhones and 23 mln iPods (Touch model only), 27 mln combined - quite a number comparing to sales of DS+PSP for first half of a year. But hardware sales means nothing here, I want to see numbers how much games did these 27 mln iPhones\iPods (Touch model only) sell? Since pricing of games is quite different from what we can see in handheld consoles market, the most representative information would be in $$$. And the second question... what about overworld sales of mobile games? What's the part of Apple in mobile game market (I mean all mobile phones, media players, various gadgets capable of playing games etc excluding handhelds purely intendend for playing games). Honestly, I don't know if this information even exists somewhere, just curious is how really bright and shinny future of iPhone\iPod Touch as a gaming devices?

Thanks!

AFAIK since the launch in the middle of 2007 till beginning of 2008 were sold 4 mln iPhones and 23 mln iPods (Touch model only), 27 mln combined

Do you have any sources for this? This site, which counts the shipments, list ~ 30M in total for Ipods in that time. http://www.systemshootouts.org/ipod_sales.html

I believe that only the Monkey ball numbers where released: http://kotaku.com/5035507/iphone-monkey-ball-sells-300k

300.000 the first month.. I'm one of them.. :)

O.. and it's believed by tracking the IMEI numbers which every phone has and is unique.. there are 10 million Iphones sold.. http://seekingalpha.com/article/98825-did-iphone-sales-pass-10m-already

@Oyvoyvoyv

As I can see from charts you've provided - that's 150mln in total sales for iPods (3/31/08)... or may be I can't quite understand you.

My point is, that the number of Ipod touch cannot be 23M, as in that period, the total amount of Ipods was 30M. Or maybe you just ill-worded you, and meant 23M Ipod touch LTD?

I don't think the phone industry will ever be a serious place for gaming unless Nintendo or Sony jumped into the phone market. I know Ericcson is part of Sony but they still seem fairly independant of each other.

I think some people will be interested in some games on their phone as a time waster but not serious gaming. Even the DS seems most successful as many of their games are simple and short. The graphics will obviously not compare to console graphics or even those usually of top handheld games. Some games will sell but we won't see many hugely successful games of any major content. They will be very simple in nature. Bowling will, mini golf and Tetris will always reign supreme on cell phone. Oh and Snake, you can't forget Snake. And I'm not talking about Solid or Plisken either.

For the iPod touch to be a "serious gaming device", Apple would have to largely slash its standard price. Even so, they will have a hard time in convincing those people who are satisfied with their current iPods to buy them. After all, the iPod brand has been perceived as an MP3 player for many years.

To the mobile phone companies up to now it wasn't necessary to diversify into the games market because the phone market itself grew every year with stellar rates. If mobile phone companies and Apple do the right moves they could own the mobile gaming market in 3 years.

Just remember on phone sales -- most people replace their units every year or two.
Thus in five years, someone may have bought 3 or 4 iPhones, but only be one customer.

Mike from Morgantown