With the long expected passing of N-gage, Nokia has apparently thrown in the towel on serious mobile gaming in the wake of the Iphone/App store juggernaut which has revolutionized mobile gaming and more importantly distribution in the short span of two years. Today Apple has over 100,000 apps generating 2 billion downloads on a base of 50 million Iphones/Ipods and are expanding exponentially into the UK’s Orange network and China. All this has helped make Apple the most profitable handset maker even though Nokia owns 38% of the cell phone market but lost over $8 million last quarter.
Apple has rocketed to the top of the smartphone market not because it’s the best phone but because it’s the best easy-to-use-all-in-one mobile entertainment device ever created.
Starting with its gorgeously large touch screen and accelerometer, two technological advances that Nokia was slow to adopt, Apple looms large over even Nintendo and Sony as its rapid advancement in game quality, especially in 3D gaming, is redefining mobile gaming as we know it.
Developers are flocking to Apple’s open SDK to create games for a one-click App Store
that is the cheapest and simplest method ever devised to acquire games and apps. While it took months for a new game to appear on Nokia’s N-gage, it’s nearly impossible to keep track of the App Store’s daily releases and with Apple‘s economics of scale, most games only cost a few bucks. On top of all this, Apple remains quick, flexible and ahead of the curve in allowing the latest innovations which at the moment is downloadable content (DLC) within games like Eliminate Pro, Touch Pets and the upcoming Skies Of Glory which allow developers to distribute their games for free and make their profits from users purchasing in-game content.
With Java being a woefully underpowered alternative for 3D gaming and other newer platforms in their infancy, there seems to be no obstacles to slow the momentum of the Apple cart. Any who try must tread wisely or find themselves buried in an avalanche of apples.
goyami