The thing is, the iPhone, and cell phones in general, simply are not competitors for portable game systems. There has been a thriving market in Asia for years, where the cell phones have been far enough beyond what we see in the West that the iPhone (and possibly Android) are the only things that even come close. Far more cell phones have been sold there than portable systems, to the point where Square-Enix -a company that has not so much as batted an eyelid in years unless they saw a reasonably safe bet- has started to take notice.

Yet despite this massive market, cell phone games have yet to even make any noticeable dent in the portable game system market. Why not? Because they're just not the same not the same. People don't buy cell phones to play games on; they'll play what's available from time to time but this doesn't detract from their decisions to buy portable game systems. End result: neither poses any threat to the other.

One needn't look far to see another example of this phenomenon: the PC game market. PCs have been around far longer, and have a far larger installed base, then even the oldest game consoles. There's an indie-game market light-years ahead of anything on consoles, and PCs are far more developer-friendly: you can even get tools for free if you want to start developing yourself. Yet the PC market hasn't made any noticeable inroads against consoles, nor vice versa. They're just not the same thing, and so they do not compete. Why would cell phones be any different?

The iPhone will probably get a nice chunk of the cell phone game market, maybe even a dominant one. And more power to it for that. But this has no bearing on the portable game system market. Neither Nintendo nor Sony has anything to fear from the iPhone.

There isn't much overlap between the DS and the iPhone, but that is little reason to believe the growth of iPod Touch/iPhone does not have an effect, however small, on DS games sales.

For starters, the primary user base of the DS, is children. Whether you like to admit that or not, it is still and will always be the case.

And no children, barring those from well to do economic backgrounds, will have $300 phones with $65 a month service plans and a credit card with which to buy their games.

But, if you can buy songs off iTunes, buying games is exactly the same. iTunes Store cards work the same and can be bought anywhere.

And phone service plans are not a cost issue for users of the iPod Touch, which cost about the same as a DSi, with games that cost anywhere from 1/40th to 1/3rd the cost of a DS cartridge (obviously NOT comparable as games, but priced accordingly).

The DSi store, once it's fully up and running, will hopefully mean the inclusion of a broad array of quick games well under $10.

But the DS remains easy to use, priced within reach of virtually all kids who play games, and has a broad library to suit just about all tastes. As a gaming platform, it's ideal.

While Nintendo has made great inroads with brain training games and the like which hold equal if not greater appeal to adult users, adults do not make up the majority of the DS user base. They certainly aren't the ones buying the majority of the "traditional" games either unless they're buying them for their own children.

And this is really the one area where the iPhone has the most to gain. Games like Brain Age can easily be done on the iPhone, as well as Sudoku, crossword puzzles and even quick bite sized games adults play during a commute, on the train, etc.

There is no point for a working adult to be carrying a DS at this point if that's all they're using it for. Personally, I don't know any that do.

I don't carry portable gaming systems everywhere (or anywhere for that matter) I go. The iPhone on the other hand, has to go everywhere I go.

And while most of the apps do have the clear distinction of being thrown together in a matter of weeks, they're more than enough for casual use and better than paying $20-40 for a game I don't intend to play for hours at a time.

The touch interface has not been the game breaking Con many are making it out to be either, even if it does make it unsuitable for traditional D-pad, button mashing games. I'm sure more developers are realizing this.

It is however, very suitable for turn based games and games that can use gestures in place of button presses.

But the point is Nintendo and Apple really aren't competing for the same market.

Personally, I've bought about 10 apps on the iPhone lately, most of which were games, many of which were straight trial and dumpware, but some like Bejeweled 2 (and Zombieville) that I continue to play on a regular basis on a whim.

I've bought one game for the DS this year and that was Chrono Trigger. I won't be buying anymore games on the DS unless I really want to play them like a console game, meaning play and finish it like a dedicated game experience.

I'm probably not the only one in this boat either.

At first I was going to write something factual, but I don't have the sources at hand so I can't provide any hard numbers on how many games have been downloaded from the AppStore. You can take my word that the number is in the hundreds of millions, though.

The reason you haven't read praise for the iPhone games is that very few games are actually praise-worthy. I have mentioned a couple of solid games, and I just today completed Rasta Monkey, which I paid $.99 for. Not bad for a few hours of play, though the game is far from perfect. But the quality of games is clearly rising, the "gems" are starting to emerge, and by the end of this year there will be some titles that can be seriously called games there. Once again, remember that the SDK has been available for devs for about a year, and that bigger devs have only recently showed more interest on the platform. Under these circumstances, it is natural that the platform is dominated by games that have been very inexpensive to make.

However, I don't disagree with your notion that gaming is more of an afterthought for the iPhone owners. If there are enough good games available, that might change: it is clear that the AppStore is a huge factor to the success of the platform and a solid game library can attract more gamers to switch phones or MP3 players.

I'm not sure sales of a phone and an MP3 player would be comparable to a outright gaming device. Apple should be weary too though, as Nintendo has all the capability to make a new handheld that does the things the Iphone and touch do. Maybe wise for them not to poke the bear.

A slightly smaller DS with a touchscreen on the front, a mic and erapiece like any other cell phone, which still opens up and can be used as a regular DS wouldn't be too hard to make. Nintendo could have it capable of communicating with the Wii/Wii replacement directly and be able to download thier VC games directly to thier phones. You could also speak to people over thier Wiis using Wii Speak channel. Basically the possibilities are pretty much endless and would put a serious hurt on the iphone.

these iphone ds comparisons are so retarded. they always bring up then the 40 million iphones. good thing that those 40 million people bought the iphone ONLY for gaming.

haven't ever seen waht the downloading is like for iphone and stuff, but with some huge number games like they said 10k or so, seems like it would be hard to find what to buy, let alone which games are good. and how do you market or get your game to be noticed, do developers pay apple to put their game on the front page or somethign. or what do you do

It's also the iPod Touch. I don't know why everyone seems to be overlooking this.

They play the EXACT SAME games. No phone service required. And they start at $199.

Most people who do buy an iPhone/iTouch are either looking directly at the AppStore (it's really why I bought one over a Blackberry) or they're simply buying out of brand recognition and popular trends.

Marketing is by far the biggest hurdle as an AppStore developer. If you don't market, it is way too easy to get buried under the tens of thousands of apps currently available. This is easily the weakest point of the AppStore.

I have one question, how is the iTouch taking consumers away from Nintendo.

If anyone can answer that without being totally insincere then Iwata and Reggie are wrong, until then most are just playing hot potato with any critical analysis of the issue.

There really isn't any information available that supports this. If there is, I'd like to see it too.

But what most are looking at, is the insane amount of growth the AppStore has seen since its inception. That's what virtually all potential low resource developers are looking at.

With a killer app and proper marketing/recognition, it is possible to make something out of next to nothing on the platform.

Breaking into development on even a simple platform like the DS by contrast, is much more limiting (thinking about the story of that kid that spent several years of his life developing a DS game first and then trying to get a SDK, only to fail completely).

Perhaps maybe Apple just has it's own market, that's not Nintendo's or Sony's concern.

The only reason I could see an article like this existing is because Nintendo is the current market leader and Sony is the past market leader.

I'm so confused why there is no mention of Microsoft, it's like they are just a hiccup on the gaming market.

App store exploded, ok fine, whats the method of this?

From 1995 to 2004 maybe still to now, the internet exploded with sources of content for gaming, some of these games were free some were not. It's great that the PC/Mac whatever market for gaming expanded and some people even bought PC's to get access to that content. But those sales didn't stop Sony's PS2 or PSX success.

But indisputable is that the amount of content on the internet for gaming in that time frame is probably double triple even maybe quintuple the amount of content on the PSX,PS2,Wii and so on. Developers have much easier access with DirectX or OpenGL than they ever did with Nintendo or Sony, you don't even need to buy a license for OpenGL development.

My point is apples and oranges, until proven otherwise.

MS still has a shot at the hand held market, albeit a very weak one.

It pretty much rides with the success or failure of the Zune HD. Sounds like a great piece of hardware on paper, but it hardly matters if it fails to expand the Zune market significantly.

I think MS will probably stay in for the long haul in the hand held device market, but it's definitely a current liability rather than an asset.

And while I won't rule it out completely, I don't see the development and release of a dedicated hand held console as anything more than a reduction of the overall potential consumer base available for media players/smart phones.

Where the AppStore has been the biggest success, is in terms of small developer support. It's the first platform of its type that has allowed so many access to a development and publishing platform with minimal investment or resources.

Even dedicated publishers are testing the waters with higher budget efforts (due to the scaled pricing approach to apps).

There will be more misses than hits, since it's very much in a nascent stage, but to completely dismiss the platform for whatever reason despite the growing support is ignoring the bigger picture.