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发帖数: 9032 | 1 In contrast to all the "iPod-killers" imagined by Apple's competitors, new
research quantifies just how much
Apple's iOS platform has done to actually displace standalone gaming devices
like the Nintendo DS and Sony
PSP.
According to a new report by Interpret, mobile phones now make up 43.8
percent of the mobile gaming
market, which includes Nintendo's DS and Sony's PSP lines of handheld
devices.
While the proportion of games played on phones has increased by 53.2 percent
over the last year, the
number played on the DS and PSP have actually fallen by 13 percent.
The firm noted that "a full 27.2% of consumers who indicate that they play
games on their phones only (and
not on the DS/PSP) actually own a DS or PSP, but do not actively use the
device(s)."
Courtney Johnson, a research and analysis manager at Interpret, added that "
the proliferation of highly
multifunctional smartphones and messaging phones is a very real threat to
the dominance by the DS and
PSP of the handheld gaming market. Devices which satisfy a variety of
entertainment and utility are fast
outstripping single-function devices as consumer favorites."
Adapting to a changing market
Prior to the appearance of the iPhone, Apple faced similar threats to its
iPod lineup at the hands of
smartphones, which analysts predicted would eat into iPod sales by offering
MP3 features that made
standalone players obsolete. However, the iPhone and iPod touch helped Apple
to maintain its position with
the iPod while leveraging its existing economies of scale to successfully
enter the smartphone market.
Additionally, Apple's release of an open Software Development Kit for iPhone
in 2008 helped create an
entirely new market for paid downloadable apps, one that hadn't ever really
taken off for previous mobile
platforms before.
By that time, the hardware of the late 2004 Nintendo DS and Sony PSP were
already being challenged by the
new iPhone. By the end of 2008, gaming legend Jon Carmack of id Software
went on record as saying the
iPhone was "more powerful than a Nintendo DS and PSP combined," and praised
Apple's App Store revenue
sharing model in the App Store.
Since then, smartphones have advanced significantly in processor and
graphics capabilities while Nintendo
has largely only offered a bigger DS screen and Sony has done little to
advance the PSP. Both Nintendo and
Sony have also made only the barest of attempts to push downloadable games,
likely out of fear of
disrupting the highly lucrative market for licensing third party titles.
Bleak future for PSP2, 3DS
Sony is rumored to be readying a PSP2 as a successor to the existing PSP
toward the end of 2011, and Sony
Ericsson is also working to create an Android phone cable of playing PSP
games, expected in February 2011.
Nintendo has released subtle improvements to the DS line, but will be
launching its first major upgrade in
the spring of 2011 under then name 3DS, featuring games with 3D screen
effects that don't require glasses,
3G mobile connectivity, an accelerometer and GPS features.
Apple's iPhone 4 and iPod touch already deliver a host of gaming related
hardware features, including a
gyroscope and a high resolution Retina Display. Unlike the DS and PSP line,
Apple's iOS also features strong
web browsing and productivity apps, a high quality mobile camera with video
capture and editing and
FaceTime video chat, and other software titles that move well beyond gaming
(in addition to the iPhone
working as a phone).
iOS cracks open mobile gaming
Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities, recently stated
that mobile games were
"approaching saturation on the handheld market. We’re starting to see DS
hardware sales crack," he said.
"I think the big woody of the iPod Touch is cutting into the handheld market
, I think the PSP is dead on
arrival and I think the PSP2 is going to be dead on arrival. It looks to me
like young kids are just as happy
playing with an iPod Touch or a Nano.”
Pachter asked, “what’s the difference if you play Tetris on an iPod Touch
or on a DS? Well, you pay a buck
on the iPod Touch, you pay $20 on the DS. Parents prefer $1 or free software
. I think the iPod Touch is
going to sell really, really well. I really think as the iPod Touch gets
more and more powerful, you’re going
to see a lot of free games over there."
Pachter predicted that Nintendo's forthcoming 3DS "will prolong the handheld
market for the game
manufacturers, but ultimately, I think handhelds are in trouble. After the
3DS has had its little rush I think
the handhelds will continue to decline.”
The top titles for Nintendo's DS are primarily first party games created by
Nintendo. If the market for
standalone handheld game hardware collapses at the foot of smartphones and
the iPod touch, Nintendo
may find itself in the position of Sega after the failure of the Dreamcast
console.
Sega gave up on building hardware and began creating games for existing
platforms, including some of the
first games for Apple's iOS.
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/12/07/mobiles_ipod_touch_killing_off_nintendo_ds_sony_psp.ht
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