Iwata doesn’t see the iPhone as a DS rival

This information comes from Nintendo’s Financial Results Briefing Q&A…

“Quite recently, media have been reporting that iPhone is a rival to Nintendo DS, but I do not strongly agree mainly because of the difference in the customers. For the customers with whom we have the most strength, it must be rather difficult for Apple to reach, and for the customer base where Apple has the biggest strength, Nintendo products would have a hard time in receiving their appreciations…Already today, a number of people are aware of and appreciate the convenience of online shopping. Accordingly, Nintendo must be making efforts to provide them with the new mode of shopping. Simultaneously, however, I do not believe the competitive edge that packaged software has today will easily be taken up anytime soon. Also, I do not imagine that iPhone will dominate the Nintendo DS market at once. My impression as the person who has used iPhone is, it is very attractive but, frankly, I did not feel that it was designed to be appreciated by a wide variety of people like how Nintendo has been designing its products.” – Satoru Iwata

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