According to
Times Online, Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata recently told senior executives that they need to treat Apple and all of its mobile iDevices as a threat, an "enemy of the future." But it's not like Nintendo has been blindsided by Apple. Iwata
acknowledged in the recent past that Apple's iDevices have been putting ever-increasing pressure on the company, and that they just wouldn't be able to sustain the same sales numbers as they have had in the past. That forecast turned out to be true, as Nintendo saw its profits decline for the first time in six years.
Times Online also revealed that, about two years ago, Nintendo claimed to have permanently altered the demographics of video games by raising the average age and gender mix of gamers. But apparently that's where it all went wrong, since the people the company claims to have converted to gaming -- high school girls and males between the ages of 30 and 40 -- reported that they aren't interested in having a DS in their pockets, they would much rather have an iPhone.
Nintendo even sees Apple as a more worthy foe than Sony. Iwata also reportedly stated that they feel they have already won the battle with Sony, which could be the reason they have decided to turn their focus on Apple.
How Nintendo intends to stop this "enemy of the future" remains to be seen. The company did recently announce that it will be entering the 3D gaming market with the successor to the Nintendo DS,
the Nintendo 3DS, in early 2011, but I am not so sure that's exactly the type of answer they need at this point. The iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad's one major advantage is that they are all more than gaming devices, allowing people to carry around a single piece of hardware instead of one for each task.
It's not all doom and gloom for the big N though, as the Wii and DS are still flying off of shelves, just not nearly as fast as they had been.
