To Reiterate: iPhone And DS Will Go Head-to-Head

Pete Mortensen ()

iphoneplayingsupermario.jpgNintendo owns the portable gaming market. They have since they created it with Game & Watch in the mid-’80s and then revolutionized it with Game Boy in 1989. Many challengers have risen and fallen over the 18 years since.

But as I predicted the day the iPhone was released, a reckoning is due between Apple and Nintendo in the coming years. As GigaOM reported today, Nintendo has filed a patent for a tilt-sensitive handheld console (a perfect companion to the motion-based Wii). Meanwhile, the New York Times claims Apple is stealthily adding game functions to the iPhone. There’s nothing stealthy about it. You create a portable device capable of gorgeous graphics, pristine audio and driven by a multitouch interface, you’re already there in the first place.

Let’s go back to the prediction from Jan. 9, shall we?

And multi-touch in iPhone is significantly more flexible — it’s made to interpret complex gestures with more than one point of input. There are a number of DS games that could easily be adapted, and it’s just made to host a new rhythm or music game that would require drumming two spots at once. It’s not a threat to the DS, because its price-point is so much higher. It is a threat to crappy games for cell phones, which often cost $6 and suck.

More interestingly, this could begin to threaten Nintendo down the road. The iPhone and its interface are extremely high-end today. By the end of the year, Apple could replace its traditional high-end iPod with one driven by the new iPhone interface and screen and offer it for the same price those iPods sell for today — and even boost the hard drive size, too. Suddenly, you have the world’s premiere media player and rising games star in a $250 package. That beats the PSP any day and hounds the DS tomorrow.

Sounds good. Anything else?

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That’s my prediction of the day: As the iPhone seizes the high-end of Apple’s consumer electronics products, the iPod becomes the ultimate PSP-killer, with an interface the DS can’t quite match without the need for a stylus. Tell me you wouldn’t buy that. I dare you.

I’m sorry. Sometimes the smug just gets everywhere.

127 comments »

About the author

Petemortensen

Pete Mortensen is a design strategist for consulting firm Jump Associates and the co-author of Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy, a book and blog that are significantly more interesting than you might initially think. Pete's particular Apple avocations are both around design--interface and industrial. Follow him on Twitter!

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Posted in iPhone, iPod, Software |

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  • Chris

    The screen looks stunning by comparison to the DS but the fact there are no buttons on the iPhone makes this a bit of a no brainer.

    You can’t have a decent gaming experience using just a touch screen!

  • jimbo

    So Apple could turn the iphone into a gaming machine? Well, with Apple’s rich history of affordable hardware and pulling out all the stops over the years to make the Mac the desktop gaming platform of choice, I’m sure that Nintendo must be quaking in their boots!

    (written on a mac)

  • Mark

    Your theory has smatterings of “N-Gage” about it, an over priced MP3 playing phone. Sure it has more functionality but Apples lack of commitment with even computer gaming is clearly evident.

    I could be wrong, but I don’t think apple have the gaming know how or desire to be even remotely successful in the market.

  • Timmay!

    The iPhone will never fully compete with anything Nintendo puts out, for the same reason the PSP can’t compete with the iPod. The iPhone isn’t built for gaming, it’s a cell phone/PMP hybrid with a ton of extras, NOT a full portable gaming console. The PSP is a portable gaming console first and PMP second, NOT a dedicated PMP.

    Sony tried pushing the PSP as a full fledged PMP (which it’s not), and what was it primarily purchased for? Gaming. The PMP functionality is a nice add-on, but it doesn’t compare to any full fledged PMP’s. If Apple tries the same with the iPhone, I doubt it would go farther than Apple users.

    If Apple wants to compete with Nintendo, they’ll have to put out a portable gaming console, period.

  • Colin

    I can see a gaming enhanced iPod as a PSP killer, assuming high quality games could be licensed. The DS has it’s place, as Nintendo products do, as the lower price range system with innovative features. The PSP, however, has significantly more capable hardware than the DS, but has had very few quality titles. When I sold them in a retail setting, people were as often concerned about the PSP’s ability to play movies as they were game titles, which bodes poorly for it as a gaming platform.

    Buttons can be created on the surface of the display itself in style similar the interfaces on Star Trek. The lack of tactile return on the buttons could make it difficult to play, but it would also give designers variety on button layouts.

    The worry for Nintendo might be the next generation of handhelds, where the price point would have risen and their currently innovative features on the DC would be commonplace or even passe.

  • Sean McGeorge

    Wishful thinking, no foundation at all.

    This doesn’t add up for SEVERAL reasons.

  • Mark

    reply to comment above from stuart..

    Yes i think the iPhone could be the new DS.. fine its more expensive but look what extra you get, iPod, phone etc. And im really not bothered about buttons, amazingly today there is something called a GUI. why not create the buttons on-screen?

    Secondly why do you need a PC/Mac to be able to go to iTunes.. if you think about it, if apple started to do this they will stick iTunes onto the iPhone so you could pay and download right on your phone.

    The iPhone is a great contender to be a console, but apple needs to give the official SDK to developers because at present people have to hack into the phone to make these kind of programs.

  • Connection Lost

    Interesting article, but honestly the iPhone is primarily a phone. The DS is a games console. It has a dedicated CPU and GPU aimed at gaming. The iPhone, is based on a simple OS designed for interaction and looks. There is NO WAY on earth the iPhone could run a decent DS game, for example Super Mario 64 DS. To render that ammount of information, at a resonable frame rate and keep the ease you use high is mear impossible for a mobile phone. As above,
    A: The phone is too expensive.
    B: It is underpowered for what you say.
    C: It has no AAA titles, or exclusive games to attact an audiance.
    D: It doesnt have buttons, or a resonable control interface for MOST games. E: Its only available in USA atm.
    F: Its Apple, who have never have a good rep with games.
    It is seriously ambitious at the least to even say that this can rival the DS. Of course there could be some games that could work for it but i cant see it as being any different to any other Mobile/Cell phone games. All of which have failed to make any MASS market impact. When buying a phone, most people will buy it for its Phone/text functionality, not for its gaming potential.
    I must say, i think this argument is rather pointless as whoever wrote it has very little understanding of the gaming market, its worth. And mostly how hard it is to break in!

  • Squire

    The article is interesting but in my opinion it may have made one mistake, Apple has never been good at the games market, games for Mac’s are rubbish for example and the problem with iPhone is the it is only touch sensitive meaning to play a game you need to touch the screen. Nintendo are also holding the Ace card which is Nintendo games only are sold for Nintendo consoles. it is not the DS that is so great it is the games, who would of though a bunch of brain teasers would be so immediately rockets to number 1 game spot. I think that it is Apple how may be in trouble if Nintendo decide to promote their Ds as an MP3 player, with 4GB SD cards out would it be that hard to make it an MP3 player fully and how hard is it to turn a DS into a phone?? Maybe Apple not Nintendo should worry.

  • Ricky

    I can see the iPhone becoming a gaint in the games arena, just like the Mac… opps!

  • Dan

    I think the main problem with this is while people change their phones every 18 months or so, in order to make a profit most games systems are designed with at least a 5 year life before the successor comes out, part of this is to ease development (can take a few years to make a game) and another reason is to re-coup the losses that are often made on every console sold through games.
    More likely is that nintendo or a 3rd will find a way to put a simcard and aerial etc into the DS’s gba cartridge slot and then you’ve got a built in phone in the DS for £20 or something with a touch interface for typing in numbers and texts. (also surfs the web with built in wifi).
    Finally it also takes time to build up a relationship with developers and a long time to become as respected as nintendo are in the handheld market – people will be wary of another gizmodo despite everything that apple touches turning to gold at the mo. Oh and to have games out for release developers need to be given something to work with at least a year in advance and in the phone market, after a year your competitors have already released two sucessive new ones.

    Basically the only way I see gaming happening on phones is when they become powerful enough to simply port existing games be it DS or even more advanced PC games in the future.

    PS I know you’re talking about the ipod becoming a DS killer as opposed to the iphone but the fact is mp3 players are getting smaller as all you really need is a couple of lines of display unless you want to play video and this doesnt lend itself well to a gaming machine. Phones on the otherhand have stabilized their size really and would be a better candidate for gaming if not for the reasons listed above.
    As for a do it all machine, given battery,memory,size,contract,expense limitations it’ll always end up being a jack of all trades and master of none for now :)

  • Cameron Talley

    Everytime this drivel gets posted I have a great laugh. Apple is not going “head to head” with the game Market. Anywone who thinks that is just a fool. Nintendo has been around since 1889. They KNOW what they are doing. Not saying Apple doesn’t, or anything, but to think that a consumer device like the iPhone would compete with the DS is ludicrous.

    Will the iPhone have games? Yes, of course, just like the iPod has games. Will these games “threaten” the market Nintendo has? No way in hell…

  • Stuart

    Apple could threaten Nintendo? Sorry I thought comic relief was over for this year.
    Hand held gaming is about high level of fun for a low cost, of which neither Apple is capable of. I mean £500 for a phone, which doesn’t work like a phone very well, and Apple’s cult subjects think it can fight with histories best hand held games maker with a product which isn’t designed for games? I dont really hate Apple’s products. I hate their users, because they often come out with rubbish like this; which only re-enforces the view that they dont try any other products incase, they may find something better than the over priced Apple object they are currently using.

    Many dedicated gaming companies have tried for hand held domination and failed against Nintendo. Sega (Game Gear) Atari (Linx) Sony (PSP) Nokia (N-Gage QD) NeoGeo (Neo Geo Pocket Color) TurboGrafx (TurboExpress). I cant remember the last time an Apple produced game or a game the will run on an Apple was any where near the top 50 in the game charts.

    Besides, you are forgetting the type of people Apple lovers are. They would rather spend time sitting in starbucks sipping a double cappachino posting on Apple forums why they love the latest , iDVD, iPhone, iPod, iChat, iTunes, i(insert random noun or verb here) pointless and meaningless feature just added to their MAC OS, than actually having fun playing a game. Plus an idea of a game is totally alien to a MAC user any way.

  • http://spudgadget.blogspot.com Spud

    I hope the iPhone/Apple don’t try and take on Nintendo in the gaming market. The iPhone should concentrate on what it really should be for and that is a phone, a music player and a few other cool things. Not a games console! Don’t ruin it!

  • http://www.liverpoolfc.tv Ashish

    some other spins…

    1. iPhone is a high-end market…Nintendo could offer games directly on the iPhone…they could even charge more…wouldn’t their margins be a lot higher just selling games to the 10million plus people who are rich enough to pay 500+ for a phone and willing to fork out 30+ for each game ? Do a distribution deal with Apple…

    2. Apple + Nintendo. Dont know what the market cap of Nintendo is however this combination will be a huge competitor for MS and Sony…specially if Apple is serious about media box in the home strategy. Today if you want a HD/Blue ray DVD player and are a gamer….PS3/XBOX are the way to go…Apple doesn’t even make it on the short list with Apple TV.

  • james

    The iPhone doesn’t even have the functions of other much cheaper phones, maybe they should be working on that rather than trying to take on Nintendo. Many have tried to beat Nintendo in the handheld market and all have failed, Apple with their overpriced hardware and control freak mentality will not fair any better.

  • Dave

    Time has shown how well Apple are at judging emerging markets and then entering those markets with an ‘appropriate device’. What you see now in the iPhone is a device that is aimed at re-educating the market as to what a device in your pocket might be used for. Further evolutions of the device are where gaming kicks in. Expect further versions of the device to include voice recognition, motion sensing and with the capacity to have peripherals plugged in.

  • The Unsmug

    Apple games will go the same way the N-Gage went – down the pan

    The iPhone has no gaming engine video card so it will never have the capability to beat the PSP on raw power, and it will never be able to catch up with Nintendo on it’s dominance for fantastic (gimicy) games as that is why Nintendo is and always has been so dominant.

    The price of the iPhone and iPod is still far too high without any of these gaming requirements, controller, decent battery, gaming media storage ports, video processor, core processor, etc etc
    Sony and Nintendo will be more than happy when their early generation devices are still better and cheaper than the usual Apple style over function devices that Apple fanboys constantly harp on about.

    You sir maybe smug, but you’re a fool to dabble in something you know nothing about.

  • Jimmy James

    I think you’ll find it’s the fanboyism rather than the smug that gets everywhere.

    The iPhone will never touch the handheld (PSP,DS,etc) games market. It’s a nice idea that Apple and Nintendo will marry up but it ain’t ever gonna happen. Sure, Apples stuff looks good but Nintendo have done a pretty good job of coming up with some iconic designs over the years all by themselves. And Shigeru Miyamoto beats Steve Jobs hands down every time for consistant innovation.

    Nintendo certainly doesn’t need Apple when it comes to technical prowess, just look at the Wii and DS (although touch screen gaming is soooo last year!…just don’t tell the iPhone). Also, Apples current stance of not opening up the iPhone to outsiders means that any developement for it is being stiffled at best.

    Sure, there might be some games that come out for the iPhone at some point but without the buttons I can’t see Mario making an appearance and as for Snake or Master Chief, forget it. So what does that leave the iPhone as a killer app? hmmmm, not much really. And how would Apple deliver these games? Download into flash memory? No second hand games market there then.

    Apple should just stick to what it’s doing rather than attempt to be all things for all people. The iPhone is a for the trendy consumer. The majority of business users will go elsewhere and the same can be said for the majority of gamers. Put simply, we can get something 100x better for far less money.

  • Danny

    This has got to be the most deluded and uneducated prediction I’ve ever heard of. Working in a game store, I can tell you that the DS lite sells far more units than any other console today, hands down. Nintendo have almost nailed the handheld console that requires no target audience because it pleases all. Nothing will compete with it for a long long time.

    But look on the bright side, Apple would be proud to have a true fanboy. Even if everyone else thinks you’re an asshole, they love you.

  • Andy

    With worldwide Nintendo DS sales of over 47 million, I think the IPhone will always be playing catch up.

    You also fail to mention that no matter how good the hardware is for any games machine its the games that sell it. The PSP is the superior machine to the DS yet its games are poor in comparison, hence its sales are far lower than the DS.

    Apple have never embraced gaming, they had a perfect opportunity when they switched to Intel processors to take a significant chunk of the gaming market away from the PC as many gamers were fed up with the Windows and Vista. They have all but ignored a vital part of why people choose a PC over a Mac.

  • Andy T

    This isnt Apple Vs Nintendo, its Apple Vs Mario.. and we all know who will win that one dont we…

  • johnny

    I agree with the above comment, the buttons would ruin the overall style of the Iphone, why try to take everthing over, don’t be greedy Apple, let the others have their share too…………..

  • http://notyet! Lesley Durling

    Well, some of us have had the forward thinking for some years. Back in the mid 50′s we acquired a plastic screened projection (Ferranti) TV with adjustable line viewing & as a small child I was convinced it meant I could watch a TV program on another channel any time after it had been broadcast (VCR inbuilt!) I knew it was going to happen. Then in 1981 when I started using my first Apple II at home and had to use PC’s at work I predicted all my problems would be solved and I’d only have to use the Apple computer operating system.

    Now there is the hastle of being a silver surfer without wanting a bag full of technology. Yup, I’m looking forward to my iphone/camera/ipod/gamesplayer/video and satnav-gps all in one handheld. My head is full of a lifetimes worth of useful info and I’m not prepared to clutter it with trying to remember umpteen operating systems/interface protocols. Until I have my one ‘simple’ gadget that connects seamlessly with my iMac and Macbook I’ll make do with a hand me down mobile phone from ‘Techno Son’, borrow his digital camera and mix & match ipods of mine. I’ve never played games on my mobile but if the Apple gadget I want has games you bet they’d probably be worth playing. Sometimes simplicity wins through and those of us who were students of ‘Small is Beautiful, Form follows Function and The Waste Makers still have our ideals.

    On the subject of Games Machines I have never been a computer/games consol player/fan even with a Son who has used a computer/games consols for 19yrs untill he bought a Wii. Now if only the graphics on the basic games package were as sophisticated as the ‘shoot’em up’ stuff I’d be hooked. At last a game system where one isn’t sat down and can now really interact with the action and apply some physical skill learnt over the years. This is the way forward for us retired folks to get some exercise at home, but who is even thinking about developing the games for the hundreds/thousands of us senior citizens with our considerable spending power. Carpet bowls anyone? Just incase it adds to the tone of my views, yes I am female, English and resident in England and a an Apple devotee.

  • Bruce

    It’s amazing just how self-important some bloggers feel they are. And how clueless they are about what makes a gaming product successful.

    Thanks for the reminder.

  • ares

    this crap can´t even challenge the best Nokia, SE and Samung PHONES let alone gaming consoles…get a grip you apple tards

  • http://www.shopall,com Hugo

    First Apple must enable the entire capacity of the bluetooth, allow sending MMS, let the iPhone record video… and then it can start thinking about other stuff.

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