Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: nintendo, ds, dsi, phone, cell | Themes: 3GSM, Smartphones
Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime of Nintendo America has said that the company does not plan to get into the phone business anytime soon.
When reports about the DSi first did the rounds, one of the flimsier rumors was that the handheld console would also be a phone. During a recent interview with the New York Times the COO discussed what Nintendo had planned for E3 this year, and also said that the phone business was not something Nintendo was interested in right now.
“Telephony is not in our wheelhouse,” Fils-Aime told NYT reporters. “It’s not something I anticipate us getting into.”
In other words, Nintendo isn’t jumping on the mobile gaming bandwagon and offering a phone, complete with a proprietary app store to cash in on the trend.
However, that doesn’t mean the company is against giving their handheld gadgets always-on wireless connectivity. The current Nintendo DSi can already connect to the internet and according to the report in the New York Times, Mr. Fils-Aime said the company does value that feature.
“We do see value in an always-on connected state,” Fils-Aime said. However, he added that there were questions that needed to be answered, like what such a device would cost. Still, he said of the concept: “It’s something that has value down the road.”
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This is not a surprise. Nintendo has always wanted to keep it simple and play it safe.
Of course they wouldn't release a phone. 1st, they restricted their gaming network so that children could play, if they gave the device the ability to place calls the parents would have to worry about who their kids are talking to, and so the parents wouldn't even get the new device. 2nd, a phone would eat into their portable gaming device offerings, then again, they've pretty much saturated the market anyway.
Yeah, Nintendo can't release a phone they need to protect the kids. I mean sure the built in cameras allow sexting, but who wants to take a picture of their genitals on the DSi when the built in photo editor allows you to make them looked deformed. Now thats a commercial I'd like to see. "Dude...look at your balls."
i don't understand how or why people would believe nintendo would go into the phone industry. hello people, nintendo is a company that specializes in video games. so how does specializing in video games end up as a phone concept? i have no clue on why people think like this?
i don't understand how or why people would believe nintendo would go into the phone industry. hello people, nintendo is a company that specializes in video games. so how does specializing in video games end up as a phone concept? i have no clue on why people think like this?
major ditto, nintendo has always done what it was good at, games, the phone market is just not something they would be interested in (not to mention the typical turn around for new phones being so fast)
Sounds to me like they're making a phone
well the phone business may not be something Nintendo is interested in right now, but are they interested in keeping any of the portable gaming market share? i would think so. their hardware is nothing to write home about, and they may end up like sega as a software only company when it comes to the portable market if they don't integrate a phone. they should be capitalizing on the massive market share in gaming at the moment by adding a phone NOW.
How is this news?
THIS JUST IN....
Microsoft is not releasing a car!
Nintendo is not building microwaves!
Making a phone is a fashion symbol now?What Nintendo should do is make games for the phones and I'm not talking the blasted iPhone alone.
i bplay game as in on hpnoe all the time
How is this news?THIS JUST IN....Microsoft is not releasing a car!Nintendo is not building microwaves!
Damnit, I wanted a Microwave DS.