iLounge

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has said he doesn’t like attempts to paint Apple and his company as rivals. As the article states, Iwata is an Apple fan himself, carrying an iPhone and using a Mac laptop on a regular basis. He claims the two companies appeal to different consumers, and says that attempts to create a rivalry make him “uncomfortable.” Despite Iwata’s claims, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller made direct comparisons between the iPod touch and Nintendo’s DS, as well as the Sony PSP, during the company’s rock and roll media event in September, stating that while the latter two “seemed so cool” at first, they now “don’t stack up” to the touch or iPhone.

Nintendo recently announced a 52% drop in profit for the first half of its fiscal year, citing lagging sales of its Wii and DS consoles, and also predicted that its annual profit would fall year-over-year for the first time in six years. “If we can’t make clear why customers pay a lot of money to play games on Nintendo hardware and Nintendo software and differentiate ourselves from games on the mobile phone or iPhone, then our future is dark,” Iwata said at a recent company event. Industry analysts also believe Nintendo may be in trouble due to increasing competition from Apple, with research firm DFC Intelligence expecting revenue from iPod touch and iPhone game to rise from $46 million in 2008 to more than $2.8 billion in 2014, while revenue from dedicated gaming devices is expected to shrink 27% over the same time period. Nintendo will launch a new version of its DS handheld, the DSi LL, in Japan on Nov. 21. It will sell for 20,000 yen, or roughly $222.