At its media event in early September, Apple threw down the gauntlet to Nintendo Co. and Sony Corp. Dedicated gaming gadgets like the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable “seemed so cool,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s head of marketing, but “they don’t stack up against the iPod touch.” Now an industry research firm has come out with numbers that back up Apple’s challenge.
A study by DFC Intelligence, released on Friday, predicts that games for the iPhone and iPod touch (an iPhone without the cellular capabilities) will be the principal drivers for growth in the overall portable and mobile gaming market in five years.
- Apple Inc.
DFC, which is based in San Diego, estimates that the overall market will grow by just 8% to $11.7 billion by 2014 from $10.9 billion in 2008. The bulk of that–about $6.3 billion–will still come from dedicated portable game devices like the DS and PSP, but that market will shrink by about 27% from 2008 over that period.
Revenue from iPhone and iPod touch games, however, are expected to soar to more than $2.8 billion in 2014, compared with a mere $46 million in 2008.
DFC also found, in a survey of over 8,000 game players, that 45% of respondents in North America and 36% of respondents in Europe had purchased an application for their mobile phone in the past year. About 15% of respondents overall owned an iPhone or iPod Touch, compared to 29% who owned a Nintendo DS.
“Dedicated portable game systems are not going to go away, but Apple is really driving the growth,” said David Cole, an analyst with DFC.
