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Many observers were expecting Apple’s iPhone, unveiled at the Macworld expo in San Francisco on Tuesday, to be little more than a solidly-specced mobile handset with iPod compatibility, a super-sleek gadget sold chiefly on the strength of the Apple name. What Steve Jobs’ team has come up with, however, has a feature set somewhat in excess of those expectations. Yes, it has standard mobile-phone functionality, a two-megapixel camera and a handful of gigabytes’ storage space for audio/visual content, but it’s built around a platform running a streamlined iteration of Apple’s OS X on a 9cm, 480x320-pixel widescreen, multitouch-sensitive display. It is, therefore, more than just a smartphone. It even looks sleeker than anyone was expecting.
All of which has made technology-watchers, especially those with Apple-flavoured blood running through their veins, fall in love with the iPhone concept five months before the device even reaches the market (in the US; it’s expected in Europe towards the end of 2007). So far, though, the loudest iPhone-related noises coming out of Apple have concerned the platform’s strengths in handling internet, email, music, video and voicemail, with no mention made of its capacity as a gaming device. You can be sure, though, that, in coming up with the product slogan ‘Your life in your pocket: the ultimate digital device’, Apple has every intention of making iPhone as game-friendly as possible.
Or does it? With 10m iPhones forecast to be in users’ pockets by the end of 2008, commercial game publishers should be falling over themselves to make their content available. IPhone is not, after all, another GP2X, Gizmondo or Tapwave; it is made by Apple. But it does not use a stylus for touchscreen control, so its designers have not taken inspiration from Nintendo’s DS, the most successful handheld entertainment system in recent years. And outside of its multitouch-sensitive screen it features only one button, which is hardly the mark of a device intended to grab market share from other multimedia handhelds such as Sony’s PlayStation Portable.
There’s little doubt that versions of many popular so-called ‘casual’ games such as Bejeweled and Zuma will appear in specific iPhone iterations, but what about the bigger picture? Apple has sold over 70 million iPods since 2001; if the iPhone series goes on to be similarly successful, will it be without game content that makes optimal use of the hardware at its disposal? It’s probably true that iPhone owners would be content to do without the polygon-rich experiences so common to PSP, but at the same time will they be fulfilled by only simple, Symbian-like gaming content?
Perhaps touchscreen-powered ‘virtual’ D-pads and other inputs will shape iPhone gaming. Whatever the case, how will the platform’s game offerings affect your desire to own one? Are the non-gaming contents of its lengthy specs sheet enough to convince you, regardless? Can iPhone really be ‘the ultimate digital device’? (And isn’t that ‘Mac in my top’ YouTube video just awful?)
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It can't be the "ultimate digital device" unless it's the best gaming device out there, otherwise you'll always need to have to carry a DS or PSP with you as well as your phone.
I bet emulators will look good on the iphone though. As you say, controlling them might be an issue....
From what I understand, the Iphone won't really be a smartphone, in that you can't download and install apps on it like you can on 'open' Symbian or Windows Mobile devices. Seems like Apple is in control of what you will and won't be running on it, and is not willing to give the same kind of power to operators/carriers like the traditional phone vendors have become used to.
Last edited by Editorial Team on Sun Feb 25, 2007 5:48 am; edited 1 time in total
Yeah, I thought I was downloading GTA for my iPod VIdeo, then I saw it was compatible with iPod Minis, then I was it was 12Kb, then I found it was a text game.
Maybe we will see some games like pinball or jewels, with a flash player, you will be able to play games like those here, as long as controls are good, which might be an issue, with the touch screen; im not sure if there is an on screen keyboard which id be surprised if there isnt.
iPhone Games in the Works... from 3rd Party Developers
Businessweek discusses Apple's entry into the "casual game" market with the iPod games, first introduced in September 2006.
Casual games are described as "play-it-for-15-minutes-and-forget-about-it games" that are frequently found on mobile phones or other handheld devices.
Businessweek has heard that Apple is in talks with Electronic Arts regarding games for the iPhone:
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Mitch Lasky, senior vice-president of EA Mobile, says his company is discussing plans for games on the phone. "We have been talking to Apple about games on (the iPhone)," Lasky says. "We see a lot of the technology that we've utilized on the iPod side being incorporated into the iPhone."
This provides further evidence that Apple will allow 3rd party developers to release applications for the iPhone, but in a supervised manner, much like the iPod games.
Apple introduced the iPhone at Macworld San Francisco. The iPhone is expected to be released in June 2007.
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