Apple iPhone: a threat to portable consoles?

N-Gage Croal is way off base here. There's no way that an overpriced product from an industry newcomer is going to compete against two dedicated, cost-effective handhelds by industry leaders. Brand loyalty only goes so far, and five hundred dollars is where it hits a brick wall.

JR

hmm

Apple iPhone: $500-$600 + Contract

PSP: $250
Nintendo DS: $150
Good Cell Phone : $200
MP3/Video Player: $200

hmmm

Don't have to carry around 3 devices hmmm

Great interface, can surf the net easily, can use other apps hmmm

I don't see people passing up dedicated handheld gaming systems for a phone that can play games but does not specialize in games. You'd turn in your Gameboy/DS/PSP to get a phone in which you can play epic games like Tetris and Nibbles?

There will always be people like me, who prefer to keep their phone and gaming consoles separate. Considering how much the iPhone will cost, I'd much prefer to buy a DS lite, a PSP and a decent cellphone, that all together will cost the same as Apple's phone. Okay, they take up more space to carry around, if you want all three on you but unless there's a lot of game development companies developing for iPhone, you can have a lot more variety of games by owning those three pieces of tech I mentioned.

The interface is revolutionary, yes, but will the iPhone itself appeal to gamers as much as portable consoles? I'm not so sure.

People seem to forget very easily because this is the PSP all over again. When Sony announced the PSP allmost everyone thought it was going to make a big dent in Nintendo's sales on the handheld market. A handheld that could also play video and music and browse the internet? How cool is that! Forget the price of $250.- because people will buy it for the Playstation-name and it's capabilities. Sony could do no wrong at that moment.

Obviously the dream didn't really happen. Sony took some marketshare but Nintendo actually sold more handhelds than it ever did in the Gameboy-era. Today the PSP is actually looked at as a bit of a problem case for Sony. Sony didn't succeed in taking the handheld-crown from Nintendo and I very much doubt that Apple will be able to pass Sony. Remember: Sony has sold WAY more Playstation's than Apple has sold iPod's (more than 200 million compared to 65 million) and their Playstation brand is still better known than Apple's iPod brand. Let's also not forget that Sony actually have experience in the gaming market and lots of it. I can't think of any reason why Apple would do better without that experience, almost no ties with developers and publishers, with a piece of hardware that isn't actually that well suited for gaming to begin with and that is also much more expensive. Hell, I'm not even shure if it will succeed as a telephone let alone as a gaming device!

Whether it is a threat will depend entirely on how popular it is. I can't se anyone buying it for gaming.. butif enough people buy it then I can imagine they WON'T be buying PSPs or DSs.

The PSP is kinda dead anyway (unless they bring out an awesome PSP2), but this is probably more of a threat to the DS. The multi-touch screen and motion sensor mean it can do a lot of the same things that make the DS so appealing.. plus its sure to be alot more powerful, and i guess its smaller.

With the price difference I can't imagine a lot of people buying it just for games.. but if they buy it as a phone/ipod it won'tbe long before developers exploit that market.

Its coming time for nintendo to unveil a new DS imho. They need to counter the iPhone and whatever sony does with PSP2. Plus more and more phones are becoming more powerful at games than the DS. (but with crummy controls, phew).

Some more power and a smaller size wouldbe nice.. but mostly some motion sensors (a la Wii, iPhone and Warioware Twisted) and an SD card slot are needed.

Battery life scares me.
I'd hate to be gaming and then drain the iphone to bits.
This means you'd still need to carry a spare charger/battery pack with you.
Hmm, might as well carry my phone AND my DS around and have excellent battery life for both.
I *WILL* absolutely get an iphone since I can't wait to get rid of my Axim and the endless soft-resets but not until they get out of that Cingular exclusivity (or I can find it on eBay for not too much of a premium).

When I saw this Iphone, I got very excited. I want one, but hope that I can wait until April of '07 or so, before I fall. Hopefully, by then, the new and improved (w/ more memory) version will be out.

I have a DS for portable gaming, and it's great! I also have a 60Gig Ipod loaded to the gills (14.2 Meg left) w/ music. I don't need another Ipod, but to store 40 to 50 favorite songs would be handy.

This is NOT about portable gaming. In fact, with all that the Iphone was presented as doing, GAMING WAS NEVER MENTIONED ONCE ! ! !

When I'm standing in line aat the store, or casuaally waiting for someone (like at the mailbox waiting for the mailman to finish), I pull out my cell phone and play Bejeweled, Collapse, Othello, or Majong. It's casual gaming. It's notment to compete w/ portable gaming consoles, but it's great. On a larger touchscreen it'd be more fun.

Note: Obviously some aare posting negative comments here without even visiting the Apple site to learn how not to stick their feet in their mouths (for instance, multiple simultanous touchscreen options are not only possible, but required for such things as enlarging or contracting menues and photos).

I have a great Canon digital SLR, but a handy anytime/anywhere camera, such as I have on my current (Cingular) Motorola phone comes in handy when I'm on the run. To have a much nicer portable camera is a great bonus. I'd use it a lot.

I have numerous data bases on my Mac G5 'Quad' in Excell. To be able to access those while shopping or in technical discussions would also be cool, and until I saw the Iphone, no palm computer could turn my head. I don't download TV shows (yet), but this feature is also a bonus.

The N-Guage tried to be too many things aat once. It waas spreaad too thin and couldn't do aanything right. Paart of the trougle was engineering. The Iphone does not have that problem. The Iphone is designed by Apple . . . 'nuff said!

This may be a great device, but what it won't be is a awesome video gaming machine or even great. It needs to get to the point of severely increasing marketshare for games to appear on there. EVEN more than OSX has for both laptops and desktop.

Case in point..... Palm OS' 1st was in '96. In 2003-4, it reached it's peak of popularity. Games galore. They were mostly GB/NES quality, a few SNES, and VERY few GBA quality. To get the SNES/GBA quality, you'd really need to spend $300+. An actual GBA costed no more than $150. Even tho Palms could do so much even in those days (Personal Information Manager, Multimedia, Office files, reference, scores of utilities), ppl still got a GBA for gaming.

Now we've got $150 DS Lite, $100 DS orig, ~$80 GBM, ~$80 GBA SP, and $200 PSP, no way anyone will get a $500-$600 phone just for games. It's gonna be for iTunes, multimedia, wireless, internet, and cell phone with gmaes being DEAD LAST. As such, GAMES will get the least attn and be the least developed function. Also, Games for the older handhelds are in the bargain bins, and no telling how much games will cost for iPhone. My wild guess, $20 to $40 per game.

Interesting converter about the iPhone and its development here:

http://www.iphoneconverter.com/

I think than the iPhone is an Entirely Different Revolution.