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Gaming:  The Next Generation

The iPhone has brought portable gaming to the masses – literally!  Never before has a Smartphone been able to excite the minds of so many people around the world and introduce a new, easy to access and arguably cheap method of handheld gaming.  In fact you could say that the success of the iPhone can largely be put down simply to the massive popularity of the AppStore…

So it makes sense to think that Apple are going to take this immense level of gaming with them through to the next generation of iPhones…

Apple haven’t exactly been on the ball on certain things – they could have shipped out the iPhone 3G with more megapixels or a much better battery, but they didn’t…but this time they don’t want to miss out on the big bucks!

That’s right, they are going to need to emphasise the gaming features of the iPhone in its next evolutionary move – it’s already pretty obvious they’ve understood exactly how much of a cash cow they accidentally fell upon.

Just do it!

It makes perfect sense – Apple are at the forefront of the Smartphone gaming market.  There are debates strewn across the World Wide Web as gamers and non-gamers alike cry out against each other to determine whether the iPhone can be classed to be in the same league as the PSP or the DS.

The numbers don’t lie – between January 2007 and June 2008 Nintendo sold a massive 42 million DS units…Apple are tickling those figures as we speak as the gap between them narrows to insignificance.

Furthermore Apple is winning the software war against Sony and Nintendo – Sony had around 600 titles in the PSP’s first 3 months, Nintendo had only 300 but Apple had around 1,500 titles on their AppStore…a massive gap!  People want to play games on the iPhone…

Apple aren’t hiding the fact that they know that their little toy is going to be the greatest thing to happen to handheld gaming as the marketing executive of Apple, Greg Joswiak, said that the iPhone and the iPod Touch were to be in fact “the future of gameplay” back in November 2008.

But how?

So it really comes as no surprise that analysts and developers alike agree that there is no where for Apple to turn other than down the gaming aisle and while we have only heard rumours of 3.5MP cameras and video recording capabilities making appearances in the new model, no one can deny that there is something big in store for iPhone gaming.

Bart Decrem, the CEO of Tapulous who are behind the phenomenally successful Tap Tap Revenge, says “The iPhone and iPod Touch are becoming a major new handheld gaming platform, and if you look at the App Store and look at what’s doing well, that’s reflecting.  I would look forward to improvements in the device as a gaming platform both for the phone and iPod Touch.”

Apple will undoubtedly be making a mistake if they don’t emphasise the gaming powers of the little legend that is the iPhone – let’s hope they get it right!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 at 10:56 am and is filed under iPhone. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.