Apple and Google have 34 percent of the portable gaming market, thanks to cell phone users, according to a report from the mobile analytics firm Flurry.
“It makes sense from a finance perspective because they’re creating a whole new market, considering that people are buying more cell phones and getting rid of landlines. Therefore, more people have cell phones and will buy games,” said junior finance and marketing major Cori Rosen.
At the Game Developers Conference last month, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said that smart phone games were hurting the industry with low-quality, low-cost games.
Nintendo has said to CNN that it isn’t interested in making a phone right now.
Sony is even coming out with a phone, the Xperia Play, which is a phone that also has PlayStation controls. Xperia Play hit shelves in Europe, Hong Kong, and Taiwan early this month and will be in the U.S. soon.
“I think it’s cool. I like games on my phone, especially when I’m in class and bored. It keeps me very entertained,” said Rosen.
Between 2009 and 2010 Flurry estimates that Nintendo’s share in the US portable gaming market fell 13 percent, leaving it at 57 percent overall. PSP fell two points to 11 percent.
Android and iOS, however, saw their share jump from 19 percent to 34 percent. “We estimate that iOS and Android game revenue increased from $500 million in 2009 to more than $800 million in 2010,” Flurry said in a statement. “Of this, the significant majority of revenue was generated by iPhone games.
“I have an iPhone and if I were to still play a lot of games I would probably just use that. It’s just so much more convenient than having a huge console thing,” said freshman Jewish Studies major Jared Sands.