So does the IPod touch have a chance against the DS & PSP?

[NJPodder]

A couple of importnat things to remember here are that for starters, the Touch/iPhone are both built ground up as an MP3 player (or phone/MP3 player) FIRST, then a multimedia machine second. I know that Apple has put as much emphasis on each area, app development included. That being said, I don't think the word "Compete" should be used here. Personally, I have a DS, a PSP, and an iPhone. I see them as three seperate devices with 3 seperate purposes. To me, the iPhone is a great phone/MP3 player with awesome accelerometer/touchscreen application support and internet cpabilities. It's my all around multimedia device. The DS has always been designed primarily as a game system. It has no built-in web browser, expandable memory capability, native music/movie playback. Gaming is it's purpose. The PSP, while Sony tried to design it as an all around multimedia device, has really only succeeded as a gaming device. Sure, I can put music on it, but I am not hooking up to my arm and going jogging outside with it. Sure, it can browse the web, but with no touch screen, it is very very annoying to do so. Yeah, it can play movies, but only if you are willing to fork over more money than most discount DVD's for those silly little UMD disks, or you have the ability to put your own movies on an expandable memory card.

So, some people are talking about "competing" for gaming. I disagree. To me, they all have very different markets they are trying to reach to, and there is no "best" device among them. It's like apples and oranges to me.

[crunc]

I agree that they are partly different markets, but Nintendo has made a staple of the casual gaming market, and that is a market that the iPhone/iPod Touch threatens rather significantly. I know that, for me, I'm buying a heck of a lot more iPhone games then DS games now. In fact I haven't bought anything for the DS since the iPod Touch 2.x software update. So while the iPhone won't take away from the PSP much, I think it could put a significant dent into the Nintendo DS's casual gaming market and even pull away some of the rest as people find that they play games more when they have the device with them all the time. I think this also explains the announced Nintendo DSi, but I don't think the DSi will prove very effective as competition for the iPhone/iPod Touch because it remains too big to be a device you have with you all the time.

[alexhardy]

If by "a chance" you mean can it stand as a worthwhile gaming platform, I'd say *definitely yes* (with enough developer support to bring compelling exclusive games).

In addition to the big names like EA, iPhone has a thriving indie community that the DS and PSP will probably never have.

Apple are also in the happy position of being able to sell games to iPhone owners. They don't have to sell the iPhone at a loss and hope to reach profitability through game sales (the standard console model).

If you mean can Apple crush the DS and bust Nintendo back to selling playing cards, I'd say *not a prayer*. The DS is a great little console. Get both!

(it may give the PSP a kicking)

[vandy1997]

The iPod touch can definitely compete, and both the iPod touch and the iPhone will effectively compete with the PSP and the NDS. And it will force Sony and Nintendo to innovate, which is a good thing! Apple has the ability to make things look cool, which the other companies haven't been able to accomplish. Instead of having a downloading concept, they are still in the "dark ages" by using cartridges and proprietary disc formats. We will see how good the downloading systems will be on the DSi and on whatever the PSP will offer. Sony will be able to adapt because it already uses a store to download onto the PS3 and the PSP. But none of these other systems work as smoothly as the iPod touch and the iPhone do. Apple's products still have some kinks that need to be worked out, but the system will only get better, and better apps will come.

Both the PSP and the NDS will continue to exist, but they will definitely lose market share to Apple. The extent of the loss depends upon what Apple decides to do in the long run. If it ends up providing replaceable batteries and extended batteries for the iPod touch and the iPhone, the Apple products may end up taking a significant chunk of the mobile gaming market.

[alexhardy]

@vandy1997 Agreed.

People always seem to want to talk about product-killers. "Google building iPhone Killer" etc...

Good products don't need to be killed.

Only envious competitors want a good product to be killed. Consumers should be happy.

It was tragic enough when Sega pulled out of the console business. Heaven forbid that there should be only one gaming platform.

[davidmdowning42]

I only want to buy and carry one little magic box in my pocket and I want it to do everything. I'm willing to sacrifice some of the quality on a few of each of the things that it does, for it to be a jack-of-all-trades. This is the iPod Touch/iPhone hands down. It's gaming doesn't touch the PSP & DS (yet) but it has WAY surpassed Windows Mobile, Palm & Blackberry. I don't want to switch cartriges, and it looks like the DS & PSP are working on that.

But what I don't hear is either of them working on any kind of REAL PDA capabilities. PSP has some, but IMHO it is completely marred by their proprietary format issues and the lack of any amount of real internal storage. When I first saw the stylus on the DS, I thought is would be a Palm with games. No such luck.

I think that myself and many other adults will continue to be content with slightly lack-luster games and battery issues in order to only have ONE do-everything device. That is the strength of the iPod Touch/iPhone. Plenty of devices do just one of the things that it does better. And plenty of devices have done all the things that it does, but none has yet to do each of them so well, and in such a user-friendly sexy package.

[NotYou]

Originally Posted by davidmdowning42

I only want to buy and carry one little magic box in my pocket and I want it to do everything. I'm willing to sacrifice some of the quality on a few of each of the things that it does, for it to be a jack-of-all-trades. This is the iPod Touch/iPhone hands down. It's gaming doesn't touch the PSP & DS (yet) but it has WAY surpassed Windows Mobile, Palm & Blackberry. I don't want to switch cartriges, and it looks like the DS & PSP are working on that.

But what I don't hear is either of them working on any kind of REAL PDA capabilities. PSP has some, but IMHO it is completely marred by their proprietary format issues and the lack of any amount of real internal storage. When I first saw the stylus on the DS, I thought is would be a Palm with games. No such luck.

I think that myself and many other adults will continue to be content with slightly lack-luster games and battery issues in order to only have ONE do-everything device. That is the strength of the iPod Touch/iPhone. Plenty of devices have done all the things that it does, but none has yet to do each of them so well, and in such a user-friendly sexy package.

I completely agree. I never bought a DS or PSP because I don't want to be carrying video games around with me all the time. Personally, I think books are becoming more and more underrated. I bought an iPhone at first for business reasons. I didn't even realize the gaming power it had.

I think the iPhone can compete, but not entirely with the same crowd. If you're really just looking for games, then you would probably just buy a PSP. If you want something that does everything, then you;d probably get and iPhone or Ipod touch.

I bet the next generation of handheld games will all include accelerometers and onboard memory. Touch screens wouldn't surprise me either.

[STP_Steve]

Originally Posted by jwbrent

Having been a fan of portable gaming devices since the Mattel LED Football game (got the app, great nostalgia), I'm really excited about the touch. The downloadable game concept is fantastic, but with the rumors that Sony is about ready to open their PSP Store and the newly announced Nintendo DSi have downloadable capabilities, I'm not sure if the touch can compete. Having no tactile buttons, I think, is a major disadvantage. I've read about some device being worked on that envelopes the touch and provides a standard D-pad, A B buttons as well as shoulder buttons and I hope it turns out to be a great add-on.

Also, I keep hearing the touch has Dreamcast quality graphics but I haven't seen that. Hopefully, the learning curve on getting to know the system is much shorter than usual.

I think the iTouch/iPhone and the DS/PSP serve different markets. Along the continuum of "casual gaming" to "core gaming," the consoles currently run: iPhone, DS, PSP.

The thing is that the commercial future of the video games market in general lies on the left-hand side of that spectrum, which is why we've seen the DS and the PSP move to the left in recent years.

In my opinion, the iPhone has already staked out the territory that the DS and PSP are trying to migrate into. It doesn't yet have the install base necessary to really compete with those consoles--the big publishers need to see scale before they'll lay down the development cash to bring top properties to the iPhone--but I think it will happen within a year.

The battery life and buttons are both major issues, to be sure, but it's very possible to design around them if you're clever.

[Oliver]

It will be interesting to not compare the DS/lite, but the DSi with the iPhone/iPod touch. The DSi offers a download store, an SD card slot, two cameras and music playback and a web browser. All of this won't be as polished as the App Store is, but it's better than nothing and will suit to parents who give this to their children, which is something, which won't happen very soon to the iPod Touch (think of a 4-year-old hammering something on the unshielded glass, while the closed DS protects itself...).

So we have two groups:

1. teens or older. Most of them have an iPod. Most of them will play games. Will most of them carry two devices with them? Or three (iPod, phone, DS)? The younger they are, the more they will, because they are deeper into the gaming stuff and deep games just aren't yet available on the OS X platform. The older they are, the more they shift to other mobile uses, like social platforms and games will become less important, so they shift to the iPhone platform and leave the DS behind.

2. Children. The DS is perfect to them. It's nearly impossible to destroy this thing. They can have fun with the two cameras. They can listen to music or audiobooks. Games can be downloaded. Games can be transferred from the wii to the DSi and *continued*. And of course you have the ad-hoc-wlan, so you can play games with up to 7 other players while sitting in the train. Many of these things are just not possible with the iPhone/iPod touch. And the DSi, with all these features, is less expensive than the iPod touch!

So, for gaming and a little bit of music the DSi is a really nice piece of hardware. If you grow up, want more and your focus switches away from long nights of gaming you probably go more into the iPhone way (or iPod touch). But, regarding the phone part, the iPhone still has a long way to got to match with the phone stuff, the teens like, like bluetooth file transfer, video ring tones etc.