“Apple announced recently that iPhone and iPod users had downloaded an impressive one billion programs from the company’s online App Store in a mere nine months. Meanwhile, 15 of the 20 most popular paid downloads since the service opened have been games,” Seth Schiesel reports for The New York Times.
“These two facts are not unrelated. Apple hasn’t been this relevant in video games — and video games have not been so relevant to Apple — since the early 1980s, when the Apple II was a major platform for computer games,” Schiesel reports.
“What the iPhone offers that the DS and PSP lack is its huge library of downloadable games among the more than 35,000 total programs available on the App Store,” Schiesel reports. “Most of the top games on the iPhone cost less than $5 and can be downloaded in a matter of minutes. They are designed, like arcade games, to be consumable in bites of only a few minutes each. And as in an arcade, if the iPhone user gets bored, it is easy and cheap to find another momentary diversion.”
Schiesel reports, “The real question is whether the iPhone provides a unique, unparalleled gaming experience for a phone, which it surely does. After Apple’s many years in the gaming wilderness, it is a pleasure to say welcome back.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: In the full article, Schiesel expends a lot of digital ink complaining about the iPhone’s battery life. We’re not sure if he understand to turn off the 3G, fetch new data manually, turn off push mail, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth, etc. which will greatly extend his gaming time. Find out more about extending your iPhone’s battery life via Apple here. Even with everything turned on, our iPhones never fail to last the whole day, thanks to our Mophie Battery Cases which can greatly extend iPhone’s battery life. If you’ve got everything turned off and still run out of juice before the day is done, we highly recommend Mophie Juice Pack for Apple iPhone 3G.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Mr. Reeee” for the heads up.]