Nokia is talking to developers about it's next generation of mobile gaming at the ongoing GDC event in San Diego. The new platform, evolving out of the N-Gage will based on S60 and we can expect to see the first devices supporting it in the first half of 2007. Nokia is also showcasing it's SNAP Mobile solution which enables online and community based Java gaming. Read on for more details.
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By the time Nokia ships it's next gen gaming phones in 2007 both Nintendo and Sony will have a strangle hold on the mobile gaming market. If Microsoft enters this market it will be tougher still. Nokia is poised for failure.
I think the whole point is that Nokia see mobile gaming as just one more thing that going to be integrated into the phone. The same is true of digital camera and digital audio players.
Nokia aren't looking to compete directly with the PSP etc. in the same way they do not compete with digital camera as such...
But think about this. Who is the worlds biggest MP3 player manufacturer? Who is the worlds biggest digital camera manufacturer? Who is the worlds biggest phone manufactuer?
The answer - Nokia - to all three questions.
What percentage of Nokia camera phone owners use their phone camera on a regular basis or in place of a standalone digital camera? Not many because the resolution and picture quality of camera phones is low for the most part. This is especially true in the US because the majority of phones here are either low cost or free.
Likewise in the US rarely do I see anyone listening to music on their phones. I do see a lot of digital music players. Occasionally I see PDAs used for music listening in airports.
That's because the US market is a bit behind the rest of the world in using converged smartphones. You only need to go to a public event (e.g. a music gig) and you'll see nearly everyone holding up cameraphones and taking pictures. Cameraphone resolution is quite good now. The N70 is 2 megapixels and that trend will continue. Yes most cameraphones now are bad (but the smartphones have the best) but it will change (just as digital cameras themselves did).
It's true not everyone will use it as a camera, or as digital audio player, but even if only a percentage do we are still talking about very large numbers.