Microsoft's portable...

[Paco]

Paco/ Obviously MS's portable will do even better than the SP and DS combined and there's simply no evidence to suggest that a competitor in the handheld gaming market wouldn't do extremely well. The reality is that people want expensive all-in-one players and not cheaper systems designed just around gaming. The Rocker phone, the video ipods, etc are all doing extremely well for their market and Nintendo simply cannot compete with an mp3 player/video player that ALSO plays smaller cell-phone-like games.

See how much of an idiot a person could sound like spewing that rant off? You should also re-read my post to see that i was talking about the ipod video/mp3 players, these devices might be selling well around Christmas but have failed to grab any real market.

Then you say:



Which, if you would actually read my post instead of assuming, you would see that I said the same thing though far more cynical. However, if you look at the entertainment ladder, the video game industry makes more money than the film and music industries combined - porn being the top market.



Okay, using your logic, one could say that the Gamecube isn't doing "bad". And yet it is. I'm sure I could find some city or town somewhere on Earth that sells more GC's than other consoles but that obviously doesn't mean diddly squat. By 'better' I think you mean it will achieve a million seller or a must-have app. Looking at the sales of the J&D games on the PS2 I dont see that being a good horse to bet on when the PSP couldn't even sell over a million GTA VC's. As i've said before, the PSP needs to go the route of executive toy (like the original GB, GBC, GBP) by getting smaller simpler games on it. That puzzle game (I cant remember the name) remains the top seller on the system, that should be taken directly to heart for the corporation.

You wanna call me blind, nintendo fan, etc that's fine but it's not going to change the fact that the DS/PSP comparison at this time is like comparing the same ratio of GC base to PS2's. Ie: third parties pounce on the higher possible sales.

As far as the MS handheld, I agree that if MS went after the handheld gaming market they would fail at it but by offering something new (an MP3 player that lets you download cell-phone-like games) could not only invent a new market but ground itself as the leader of that market. But will it even begin to touch the level of Nintendo's handheld market? Not a chance on God's green Earth in terms of money or market share. I could however see a symbiotic relationship between the two (not litteraly) where most people who own either of the devices probably own both or, Nintendo releases a more intuitive MP3 peripheral to capitalize on the new market (the MP3-game) if Nini thinks the device is going to float. But it should be noted that in Japan people have been using their GBA SP as a camera/cellphone/mp3/video player for quite some time and most of those peripherals (mp3/cellphone/video) are already available for DS from multiple companies in Japan as well.

I just dont see MS making a mark with it unless they go for it right now. If they take their time in building up this avenue, not only will every corp under the sun jump on it but Nintendo will cover their ass as well by releasing an MP3 gadget with smaller, downloadable first party games. At which point MS would be exactly where they are right now - a bleak "handheld device" future in comparison to Nintendo.

I stopped reading after the first two paragraphs, and here's why...

At the Macworld Expo keynote speech[33] on January 10, 2006, Apple CEO Steve Jobs reported sales of over 42 million iPods total, and 14 million in the first quarter of fiscal year 2006. This equates to 100 iPods sold every minute throughout the quarter.

Fortune magazine reported on June 27, 2005 that Apple had sold over 15 million iPods, including 5.3 million in the first quarter of that year. <SUP class=plainlinksneverexpand id=ref_fortune27>[34]</SUP> The iPod currently dominates the digital audio player market in the US, frequently topping best-seller lists. [35] According to the latest financial statements, iPod's market share accounts for 74% in the US in July 2005. Within one year from January 2004 to January 2005, its US market share tremendously increased by 34% from 31% to 65%. This success was especially based on the introduction of the iPod mini. Therefore, Apple succeeded in chipping away at the mainstream Flash player market in the US. That is why Flash players at the beginning of 2005 account for less than half the US market share they did in 2004 (their market share decreasing from 62% in January 2004 to 29% in January 2005 [36]). In other countries, the iPod market share is significantly lower, mostly due to high import taxes and less ubiquitous marketing, so flash memory players, or hard disk based players from competitors like Creative are dominant.

In its first quarter results of 2006, Apple reported earnings of $565 million — its highest revenue in the company's history. <SUP class=plainlinksneverexpand id=ref_applepr2>[37]</SUP> Apple shipped 6.16 million iPods during the quarter that ended on June 25, 2005, a 616% increase over the year-ago quarter. Most recently, Apple shipped 14.04 million iPods during the quarter that ended on December 31, 2005, a 207% increase over the year-ago quarter. <SUP class=plainlinksneverexpand id=ref_applepr2>[38]</SUP>

On January 8, 2004, Hewlett-Packard announced that they would license the iPod from Apple to create an HP-branded digital audio player based on the iPod. The HP models were the same as the Apple iPod except for the inclusion of an "HP" logo on the back under the Apple logo and "iPod" label They were sold as the "Apple iPod + hp". Retailers of this model included (among others) the retail giant Wal-Mart, which included a disclaimer explaining that it would not work with its own online music service. In July of 2005, HP reversed its decision and announced they would stop reselling the iPod by September 2005, when existing stock were projected to be depleted. Sales by Hewlett-Packard made up 5% of all iPod sales. <SUP class=plainlinksneverexpand id=ref_hp-percent>[39]</SUP>

iPod sales according to Apple's yearly financial results:

<TABLE class=wikitable cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=4 border=1><TBODY><TR><TH>Fiscal year</TH><TH>iPods sold</TH></TR><TR><TD>2002</TD><TD>381,000 [40]</TD></TR><TR><TD>2003</TD><TD>939,000 [41]</TD></TR><TR><TD>2004</TD><TD>4,416,000 [42]</TD></TR><TR><TD>2005</TD><TD>22,497,000 [43]</TD></TR><TR><TD>Total</TD><TD>28,233,000</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
iPod sales according to Apple's quarterly financial results:

[url="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/9b/IPod_Sales_Graph.png/300px-IPod_Sales_Graph.png"]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/9b/IPod_Sales_Graph.png/300px-IPod_Sales_Graph.png[/url] [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png"]http://en.wikipedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png[/url]
iPod Sales according to Apple


<TABLE class=wikitable cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=4 border=1><TBODY><TR><TH>Fiscal quarter</TH><TH>iPods sold</TH></TR><TR><TD>2003 Q4</TD><TD>336,000 [44]</TD></TR><TR><TD>2004 Q1</TD><TD>733,000 [45]</TD></TR><TR><TD>2004 Q2</TD><TD>807,000 [46]</TD></TR><TR><TD>2004 Q3</TD><TD>860,000 [47]</TD></TR><TR><TD>2004 Q4</TD><TD>2,016,000 [48]</TD></TR><TR><TD>2005 Q1</TD><TD>4,580,000 [49]</TD></TR><TR><TD>2005 Q2</TD><TD>5,311,000 [50]</TD></TR><TR><TD>2005 Q3</TD><TD>6,155,000 [51]</TD></TR><TR><TD>2005 Q4</TD><TD>6,451,000 [52]</TD></TR><TR><TD>2006 Q1</TD><TD>14,043,000 [53]</TD></TR><TR><TD>Total</TD><TD>41,292,000</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

You obviously have no idea what you're talking about. The fact that 14 million of them have sold in one fiscal quarter blows away the PSP and DS combined. There is a MP3 market and the numbers show it's still growing. Microsoft has as good a chance as anyone else (better given their resources) at cracking into the MP3 market and giving iPod a run for their money. As I said before, I believe the video game segment should be something to consider later if MS does go ahead with this (like years from now).

Question for you though, something I've noticed every time a portable comparison comes up, why do you assume they have to beat Nintendo in order to be successful? Nintendo doesn't sell near the amount of units that Sony does (home consoles) but is still profitable with their Gamecube. Profit = Good Business, no?