Apple’s iPhone gaming intentions

Mike Bantick
Monday, 15 December 2008 07:58

IT Industry - Market

Lookout Nintendo and Sony, as long suspected Apple want to muscle in on your territory by pushing the iPhone as a gaming handheld console.

Is the iPhone another hand-held gaming console?  Fellow iTWire correspondent Davey Winder thinks so and increasingly so, it seems, does Apple themselves.

Of the current most popular downloaded applications from the iPhone app store, 6 of the top ten are from the Games category.  So it is easy to immediately to draw the conclusion that iPhone owners are spending all their spare time gaming.

That would be true if it were not for the fact that many users simply use the phone with the features that come preloaded, and then add the games on top of that, and possibly on a whim due to the patented ease of install that Apple have perfected.

According to Gartner, OS X grabbed the number three position in mobile software platforms ahead of Windows Mobile.  This was on the back of a third quarter boost in Apple smartphone sales.

RIM held on to number two with a 15.9 percent market share, ahead of Apple at 12.9 percent, both of whom were well behind Nokia Symbian based phones with 42.4 percent of the market.

But Sony and Nintendo need to follow these trends as well.  According to a recent endgaget source , Apple are getting serious about a push into the hand-held gaming market with the iPhone.

According to the report John Geleynse, Director of Technology Evangelism at Apple, has been dropping more than a few hints regarding the new gaming emphasis.  Speaking at an Apple Developer Conference gathering, Geleynse referred to the iPhone as in direct competition with the Nintendo DS hand-held, describing the iPhone as "a gaming console, it's not a phone, it's a console experience."

The report also quotes a recent Electronic Arts promotion for upcoming “sneak peek” events at Apple Stores  “Throughout the month of December Apple Stores in New York, LA, San Francisco and Chicago will host special "EA Games Sneak Peek" events where Electronic Arts will discuss why the iPod touch and iPhone are amazing platforms for mobile gaming.”

With one in five people considering themselves to be mobile gamers , and with comments from Apple execs as well as recent advertising campaigns showing off the iPod Touch as the funnest iPod ever is it surprising not to expect game producers to shift development towards the mobile arena?

Just like when EA realised their mistake in not targeting the phenomenally selling Nintendo Wii as a viable platform, expect developers to bring more resources into projects aimed at the mobile and casual gaming demographic.  Expect also companies such as Apple to want a slice of that market pie, and finally expect companies such as Nintendo and Sony to not relinquish said market so easily.