Who’s Winning the “Non-Fight” Between Nintendo and Apple?
We’re not fighting…but we’re winning!
It would seem that the fellas over at Nintendo are pretty adamant to make you know that they are not seeing the iPhone or the iPod Touch as any sort of competition according to the president of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata.
According to Iwata “Nintendo doesn’t have any intention of directly competing with existing products, but the mass media has a tendency to portray everything as a rivalry between opposing companies.
“It seems some people have the impression that we want to compete with cell phones or the iPod, that putting cameras or music players in our devices is out of character for us.”
But are they just saying that to cover their backs? The iPhone and the iPod Touch have been building up some pretty strong arguments as to why they should be taken seriously in the portable gaming market, the main one being the amazing success the AppStore has been experiencing since its launch.
In fact, Iwata is actually having a stab at mobile music players, like the iPod, claiming that the DSi is a winner in that area - “…When I see the final product (the DSi), I feel like it possesses a value as a music player that previous music players haven’t,” said Iwata.
It seems as though he’s pretty sure that Nintendo are winning in the non-battle that’s taking place between Apple and Nintendo.
Not everyone’s on the same page…
However Iwata doesn’t seem to have the support of everyone in the Nintendo camp – either that or not everyone is aware that the battle is non-existent!
According to Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo he has always warned of the potential competition from mobile phones (despite Iwata firmly claiming that there is none)…
“I’ve always said that for a while text messaging on a cell phone was beating video games as the easiest way to pass time.
“During that period, it was more fun for young people to kill time on the train by texting rather than by playing video games.
“That’s what I used to say, but now we’ve got Nintendo DSi. I want everyone to walk around with their Nintendo DSi on them.
“It would be great, I thought, if everyone killed time on the train—or wherever—editing the photos they’ve taken on their Nintendo DSi, casually combining pictures, adding text, and sending them to friends,” claimed Miyamoto, jumping back on the DSi bandwagon at the last minute there…
Apple are on their tail…
It’s fair to say that Nintendo don’t have too much to worry about right now – they have gotten rid of 100 million units of their DS around the world.
However, Apple are slowly catching up to that figure and although the argument between whether the iPhone is in the same league as the DS continues to trundle on into 2009.
What do you think?
What are your views on the whole iPhone/DS debate? Let’s not forget our old friend the PSP…do you think the iPhone should be in the same class as these two big boys? Let us know…
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