While Apple’s latest quarterly earnings report seems to point the company towards a path where they can do no wrong financially, it seems that their success would mean the failure in another company – as the mobile gaming pie has been affected by a shift in affections towards the iPhone and iPod touch where casual gaming is concerned, and one of Nintendo’s bread and butter, their portable Nintendo 3DS, has failed to hold its own against Apple’s mobile devices in terms of portable gaming. Nintendo lost $575 million (45 billion yen) in the last quarter, and this figure is more than 10 times the amount that experts forecasted. It seems that iPad and iTunes App Store games are the main culprits for such a sudden turn in fortunes, even though the fourth quarter has been traditionally known to rake in the dough considering it is a holiday season.
Will dedicated game consoles now survive a future that is filled with iPads, iPhones, iPods, as well as other Android-powered tablets and smartphones? Only time will tell, and if Nintendo falters in this department, you can be sure that the PS Vita too, will take quite a beating.