Brian Caulfield of Forbes.com thinks that the iPhone could kill the DS. Is it a possibility? In a word. No.
Still not getting it? Let me put it this way… Hillary Clinton has a better chance of being elected president.
Monday, however, Nintendo will likely face a new and far more dangerous foe: Apple. Steve Jobs’ computer and gizmo maker will likely launch a long-promised feature, dubbed the App Store, which will let outside developers pour software into the iPhone and iPod Touch. And while it’s unlikely that, say, a mobile version of Oracle’s wonky database will make anyone stand up and cheer, we already know putting games on the iPhone is a pretty powerful combination.
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According to his little equation, Nintendo should already be in trouble. I don’t know about you but I’ve been downloading games for the iPhone ever since I purchased it. Granted Installer.app isn’t as mainstream as the App Store will be, but shouldn’t it have had at least some affect on Nintendo’s sales? Well, when you look at the numbers, Nintendo actually saw increased first quarter sales in 2008 over 2007.
Just for fun, lets take a brief look at Nintendo’s best selling game of all time, Nintendogs, with 18.67 million copies sold as of March this year, 18.67 million? Apple hasn’t even sold that figure in iPhones and iPod touch sales combined! And this is only one game!
Not being a gamer myself I can’t really comment in detail as to just how bad the control scheme on an iPhone is vs. a DS, but it’s bad. I’ll let Fred expound on that one if he wishes.
From my point of view, gaming on the iPhone is better than gaming on your average cell phone (unless you live in Japan) but it’s nothing to sell your DS or PSP over (or even your Game Boy Color).