Some recent buzz from the folks at Nintendo...





Seems like the NIntendo bosses disagree about the competitiveness of the iPhone and iPad... I'm quite sure that the iPod and iPhone have already affected Nintendo's sales in past quarters.



Source: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article7118570.ece

I also think the battle with Sony (or MS for that matter) is far from over. The PS3 still has a long life ahead of it by all accounts. Nintendo needs to start putting out some games people actually care about. Like another Zelda. It's the reason I bout the Wii in the first place, and I don't see myself spending much time gaming on it until the new installment hits the street.

I imagine they were referring to the portable market. I don't think anyone holds out much hope for the PSP any more, if they ever did. I think it's a good platform, but it does, or at least did, have a dearth of good games.

Maybe now that they've effectively deprecated the UMD … actually, I don't have any idea where that will lead.

I'm not sure how they can be referring to anything else. The iPad has some of the same interface features as the DS series, and nothing in commong with any other console. Where the iPad is portable, the PS3 and XBox360 are decidedly not. I don't know how that statement can be interpreted any other way than with the portable market.

Yeah, I was focusing on "war" instead of battle. In any case, the significance is Nintendo's position regarding Apple as legitimate competition.

If you want to stay in business you identify everything coming along that competes with your product as a threat and determine how to counter it. Boeing and Airbus are looking at the new Embraer and COMAC planes as threats to their smaller single aisle and are planning on doing something to make theirs more competitive (re-engining or redesigning depending on the article and day of the week). Those aircraft aren't even on paper yet, and that is a helluva lot more expensive than redesigning a gaming device.

You don't make mistakes like ignoring something that may turn into competition if you want to be in business as long as Nintendo. I don't think that statement means nearly as much as you are thinking it does.

It's significant in terms of showing "people" that Nintendo does see Apple on the radar. It's significant because Nintendo had previously poo-pooed the iPhone platform.

Should they be caught asleep, I have every confidence that the iPhone (which includes iPod and iPad in this context) can eat Nintendo's hand-held lunch long-term.