The New iPhone Effect: Winners and Losers : Winner: Gamers

By Anthony Celeste , published on June 24, 2009 at 12:40 PM
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The iPhone 3G upgrade was focused on business users (with push email from Microsoft Exchange) and the healthcare industry (with the Epocrates app). However, many of the new features in the iPhone 3GS seem to be targeted specifically to mobile gamers. These features include:

· A faster CPU: TechTree India reports that T-Mobile Netherlands accidentally released the hardware specs for the new iPhone, showing a 600 MHz CPU. The previous CPU is widely believed to have operated at about 400 MHz.

· More RAM: The T-Mobile Netherlands site showed 256 MB of RAM in the iPhone 3GS, while the iPhone 3G is widely believed to have used 128 MB of RAM.

· A faster GPU: The TechTree India article also reports that the iPhone 3GS has a new graphics processor, which supports OpenGL ES 2.0.

· A better battery: All of the above would demand a longer-lasting battery, which Apple confirms that the iPhone 3GS offers.  

According to Apple, the “S” in iPhone 3GS stands for "speed." And I can’t think of any single industry that would benefit from speed enhancements more than mobile gaming. "Gaming is obviously a huge success on the iPhone and iPod touch. We see the [iPhone] 3GS as continuing this story, along with any new upgrades Apple makes to the [iPod] touch," Andrew Stein, director of mobile business development for iPhone 3G game developer PopCap, said. "The enhanced OpenGL support and increased processor power and memory are great and will definitely get traction among publishers."

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Comments
Anonymous 06/24/2009 11:01 PM
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the iPhone is way way behind Nintendo's DS or Sony's PSP in terms of gaming.

iPhone is a great handheld that does so many things great, but does nothing perfect. It is not the perfect portable video player as it only supports few codecs while having relatively small memory capacity for videos. It is not the perfect at web browsing because it doesn't do flash. Last but not least, the iPhone is very annoying when it comes to syncing content.

However, for the fact that it's one of the very few devices to do everything good, the iPhone is touch to beat.

Always remember before choosing any handheld, think about what you need first before what to choose!

kansur0 06/25/2009 12:09 PM
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Just a note on this for Canadian users. Rogers iPhone early adopters have an adequate upgrade path. $199 for 16Gb and $299 for 32Gb if they renew a 3 year contract.

Unfortunately this is not the case for Fido customers that can only use Fido Dollars and a $100 credit that appears on your next bill. That means the customer pays FULL PRICE of $699 for the 16Gb and $799 for the 32Gb and they get to use $50 (that is what I have) towards the phone. I wonder what they call the $100 bill credit. The "Carrot for stupid discount?" Rogers...you own Fido. Do you honestly think your customers are stupid enough to not see this?

Clearly Roger's the ever greedy corporation still don't get the concept of fairness. Why would you give some customers a relatively fair price for a product and not allow Fido customers the same priveleges WHEN YOU REALLY ARE THE SAME COMPANY!!!

As a Fido customer I thought I was making a smart decision to go with Fido for the per second billing option. WRONG!!! If I would have known Fido was going to screw customers for upgrades I would have just stayed with Rogers and bought a few extra minutes.

So...now you know. DON'T GO FIDO!!!

zodiacfml 06/25/2009 6:36 AM
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the overlap to nintendo/sony as a gaming device is very small..
the iphone just enabled more gaming to working people since rarely bring/own such devices.
it will change if kids and teens starts owning an iphone.

misasi 06/25/2009 5:02 PM
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Wow you mention all the top phone makers yet no mention of the palm pre? thats giving apple some direct competition.

justjc 06/25/2009 10:05 PM
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@misasi to be fair the Palm Pré isn't really aimed towards the same market as the iPhone.
Not that the mentioned Research In Motions devices do either. I'm not to sure about the LGs, are they phones, or media devices with phone functionality, like the iPhone? One can also wonder where the socalled iPhone killers from Sony, HTC and Samsung are.

Anyway the inclusion of the Palm Pré would force a part about needed innovation, as even the Apple crew at Arstechnica sees things in it they would love on their iPhones. We can't have criticism of the precius iPhone ;)

Now I'd like to see a Palm Pré review, like the one above, on Toms Guides not mentioning the iPhone ;-p

mitcoes16 07/03/2009 2:44 PM
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Everyone with an Iphone tell me DO NOT BUY IT, as a phone fails a lot.
Everyone with HTC (Android or Win CE) tells me BUY IT (If you need).
They are not hundreds, but devices must work for what you need. And 600 USD for a games machine is very expensive

Anonymous 07/04/2009 5:46 PM
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Apple already won the war for the de-facto-standard handheld, pocket-sized computer platform of the future (without even needing to fight). Anyone who doesn't believe this, check the situation/market in 1 year. Just my 2 cents.

Codesmith 07/06/2009 12:07 PM
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Its its selling well and making lots of money then its a good product even if its not what you would chose to buy.

Saying ... "this product is lacks suck and suck and I'd never buy it" is fine ... its even useful.

Saying ... "this product sucks and the massive number of people buy it and mistakenly enjoy it are morons" is just idiotic.

Anyway I have an iPod Touch which I love, I am staying away from the iPhone because I hate the entire cell phone business model.

It limits choice, it limits flexiblity, it limits competition.

I'll carry a digital camera, an iPod touch and a pay as you go cell phone rather than sign one of those 2-3 year agreements.

But that's just me.



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