A question long asked of (and ignored by) Nintendo is whether or not the company considers the not-so gaming-centric Apple company a rival. In recent interviews the company has opened up about these prospects, a recent discussion with Forbes finally being able to cox a full response.
“Do I think that in the near term they can hurt us more than Microsoft? Absolutely.” responded Nintendo of America President Reggie-Fils Aime, “It’s all about time. I compete with Zynga, I compete with surfing the net, I compete with the newspaper.”
The response evokes a much more worldly image than the Big N has been privy to these past few years, with press conference mis-fires and constant secrecy in interviews leading many to believe the company to have blinders on as long as profits continued. Ever since Satoru Iwata was quoted as seeing the iOS as a major competitor, however, Nintendo has been much more upfront about the media battle it has been waging on multiple fronts.
Well considering that MS doesn’t have a dedicated handheld device, and their Windows 7 Phones just came out, MS doesn’t have that much of a foothold in the handheld space. Also, MS is going out on a huge limb by focusing on Kinect, which might just come back to haunt them later (especially considering they are putting $500 million into marketing of Kinect). Apple competes with Nintendo’s handheld market, and that is where Nintendo is getting a lot of its business from.
It is going to be interesting to see what Nintendo’s statements are when it gets closer to the launch of the 3DS.