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Jul 30

Nintendo DS, I never even got to know you; When the iPhone convergence story wins

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I have been wanting a Nintendo DS for quite some time. I have watched friends with their special ROMs that have every game under the Sun on them, and some of the games have phenomenal game play. I always love a device that focuses on that rather than raw graphics.

I don’t know why I didn’t get around to getting one. I think that the reason partially lies in the fact that I had bought a PSP when it first game out. It was great fun to play, but since I had a child quite shortly after, I think that my nephews have played it more than I.

There lies the rub. For me, the only real time that I get to play something like that (including a DS if I had one) is on a flight. In those times when boredom sometimes strikes, the Internet isn’t there to help, and you are stuck in cabin where the idea of doing anything useful on the flight disappears.

So, I never have got a DS. I don’t think I will end up with one now, because I can just download games to the iPhone. There aren’t any that I love right now, but I can enjoy a short period playing Tetris and trying out some free / very cheap new games that try to use the gyros.

I trust that the same will go for the Amazon Kindle too. I really like it in theory, and I am waiting for the next version to come out. But by then we may have a MacBook Touch that will illuminate the need.

Sometimes the convergence play doesn’t work. The bulky “I do it all” stops making sense, and you just want something that does that one thing really well. Apple is nailing it though, and I think that the iPhone is actually going to be THE computer in the years to come.

Bluetooth to headsets, glasses that show the screen directly on your retina, voice controls, magic keyboards, and a hell of a lot of processing in the cloud.

I am sorry that I will only be buying a few devices in the future. I always remember my iPhone. I often forget the PSP etc.

2 Responses to “Nintendo DS, I never even got to know you; When the iPhone convergence story wins”

  1. Daniel Says:

    It could be the other way around. More Nintendo DS’s are sold than any cell-phone I know of, and there is no sign of it slowing. It is projected that over 100 million total DS’s will have been sold by the end of next year. Now imagine if Nintendo were to partner with Skype to provide a VoIP firmware update, or do a slight redesign and add cell-phone capabilities. That would be “game changing” IMO.

    Sadly that won’t happen since Nintendo stubbornly does their one thing and does it well. You would more likely see Sony or Microsoft try to enter the mobile phone market from the gaming side. (PSPhone? GameZune w/ Windows Mobile?). Especially now that Apple is showing it as a viable market.

  2. Wilson MacGyver Says:

    Actually, DS sales is in fact slowing down, at least in Japan. This goes for both DS and Wii, and applies to DS software in Japan too.

    http://kotaku.com/5030827/ds-wii-totally-cooling-off-in-japan

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