Last week, Apple got into the mobile-game business. The company, which projects it will sell 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008, is trying to make it easier for third-party developers to make cool stuff for the sleek, sexy devices. MSNBC has the story.
“There seems to be an enthusiasm around (the iPhone) that I’ve never seen for a particular device model,” says Mark Donovan, senior analyst with M:Metrics. “What we’re hearing out of the game community is that they’re viewing this as much closer to a console platform than your typical mobile handset platform.”
That’s an important distinction. Mobile phones are for making phone calls. The user interface for your average cell phone has a small screen and a keypad for punching in numbers and letters. Not exactly an ideal gaming device. No wonder the most popular cell-phone games have been tried-and-true fare like “Tetris” and “Solitaire.”
But the iPhone has a 3-D processor and graphic capabilities that far surpass those of other mobile phones. It has a 3.5-inch widescreen display that makes it look more like Sony’s PSP than a RAZR. No keyboard, and only one button. It’s really a blank canvas, says Travis Boatman, vice president of Worldwide Studios for EA Mobile.
