Iwata: iPhone not a threat

by Chris Greenhough { Jul 23rd 2008 at 5:00PM }

Think Nintendo overlord Satoru Iwata is bothered by suggestions that Apple's iPhone poses a threat to the DS? Then think again, chump!

Speaking to Forbes, Iwata admitted that he uses the iPhone himself, and regards the device as an attractive product. Yet in the Nintendo President's eyes, the iPhone and DS are just about different enough to find their own markets. "When I look carefully at the iPhone's users vs. the users of our Nintendo DS, I understand there are some overlaps," remarked Iwata-san, cool as a cucumber. "And if you ask 'Is the overlap too big?,' my answer is no, not so much."

We're right behind Iwata on this one. People aren't about to suddenly drop the 70 million DSes sold worldwide to date, and let's not forget how the DS convincingly beat another sleek, multimedia device to occupy top spot.

Tags: competition, iphone, iwata, market, satoru-iwata

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Sora @ Jul 23rd 2008 5:14PM

Of course it's not a threat. The iPhone is primarily a PHONE, while the DS is made for gaming. Of course the DS is going to trump the iPhone in the gaming aspect. It's common sense.

Steve @ Jul 23rd 2008 5:26PM

I've played some of the games on the iPhone, and a few of them are entertaining enough, but you can't discount the fact that an iPhone (under most circumstances) requires a subscription to use for its primary purpose.

I think that's got to play into this in a major way.

Eric @ Jul 23rd 2008 5:47PM

I've played a few games on my iPod touch, and they're quite good. But I'm certainly not about to get rid of my Nintendo DS to play games on it, and I imagine iPhone users (who are using it as a phone) are even less likely to, since they'd probably appreciate having enough power to make phone calls.

april @ Jul 23rd 2008 9:39PM

I have both an iPhone and a Nintendo DS Lite and I still find myself using both just as much as before. The DS is simply more stable for gaming. So far, a majority of the apps I've downloaded for my iPhone (games and not) by third party developers often have stability issues at this early stage in development. So no, I don't think the iPhone will overtake the DS in the gaming department. I'd rather stick with true and steady DS when it comes to the hard work I put into my games, rather than risk frequent crashes.