Is iPhone Grabbing Game Market Share From DS & PSP?
According to a story on Flurry, the iPhone has been grabbing game marketshare from both Sony's PSP and Nintendo's DS portable game consoles.
They've extrapolated numbers, built pie charts, and show what does, indeed, seem to be an encroachment into the space held by the two major Japanese game companies.
But not so fast. If we assume these numbers are correct, or at least close, without knowing the overall market value, there's no way to know whether the iPhone is grabbing market share or simply growing the market overall.
The introduction of the iPhone and the iPod touch guaranteed at least some sales: it's a platform that people by definition are going to carry with them regularly (or, one assumes, it wouldn't have been purchased) and it allows for instantaneous purchase of games. Further, the games are priced considerably lower than those developed for PSP and DS platforms.
But does this mean that iPhone is threatening the PSP and DS market? I'd consider that to be fairly doubtful; the game quality is quite different, as is the playing experience, and both Nintendo and Sony offer hugely popular exclusive titles. So for Apple fans, this is fodder for a big "yea!"
For the rest of us, it's pretty much a "so what?"
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