iPhone vs. Netbook: Which Will Be the Biggest Gaming Machine?

by: Bruce Everiss November 30, 2008 | about stocks: AAPL / DELL / HPQ / INTC    

Bruce Everiss

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This is absolutely fascinating stuff. We have had these two new gaming platforms burst onto the scene and instantly steal the limelight. Both are obviously going to be far bigger than some of the existing mainstream gaming platforms. In fact they are bringing a revolution to gaming. But which will be the biggest?

What they have in common is that they are both portable. So people will carry them around and use them in lots of places. They are not limited to one location like an Xbox or Playstation. They are also both cheap. You pay for the iPhone as part of your contract with your service provider, just like any other phone. And netbooks are going to be $100 purchases, less than the cost of a family night out.

The iPhone is by far the most portable of the two. And it is the one getting the most hype. However it is a standard from one manufacturer and all the other manufacturers are going to compete against it. Already Google's (GOOG) Android is looking better in many ways and that will be supported by many manufacturers. But Apple is really pushing iPhone as a gaming device and as such it is booming like crazy, outperforming everyone’s expectations. It has really caught the psyche of the market. Steve Jobs' marketing genius proven once again.

Netbook is that great device that comes about when manufacturers realise that they can make a product with greater utility by offering less. Notebooks had become ever more powerful, well beyond the needs of 90% of their owners. By stripping out all but the most essential features to create the netbook the industry have created a product that is a lot more use to a lot more people.

The netbook is a lot less portable than the iPhone. But at about a kilo in weight it is very portable indeed. And that extra weight gives you a big screen and a full size keyboard. Just about every student after primary level in the western world is going to have one of these. And it is going to be the only computer used in big quantities everywhere in the developing world. So it is going to sell in the hundreds of millions.

Of course neither the iPhone or the netbook is primarily a gaming device. A lot of them will be used for many years without ever seeing a game. But it is in human nature to play, so most of them will. And the netbook has the advantage of tapping into the huge legacy of PC gaming.

So as things stand it looks like netbooks are going to be the biggest gaming machine, by a significant multiple of what the iPhone achieves. In fact the netbook has the potential to be the biggest gaming platform of all. It should easily outperform all home consoles put together. It will be interesting to see this unfold.

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This article has 15 comments:

  •  
    Nov 30 03:23 PM
    Good question - I reckon this is the latest battle ground for the smart phones and netbooks too. It's a HUGE, YOUTH dominated market, i.e. a golden goose. The challenge the netbook has is that anyone who's serious about games on a computer will opt for more juice - netbooks choke on media. The iphone isnt much better in that respect, but you get a brilliant device that can do a hundred other things for you and it IN YOUR POCKET. So while it wont lure many hardboiled gamers, it will appeal to the light to moderates - Include, ofcourse, the other less popular smart phones in that category.
    Will Apple be the BIGGEST gaming machine or not? T answer that you gotta answer this: Will Apple's succes with the ipod, itunes phenomenon and its seductive, cohesive design aesthetic, that unified hardware, software and the web in an intuitive way for the consumer, is being replicated with the iphone, app store experience? If the answer is yes, then it aaplies for mobile gaming as with other app sales, that Apple is in a league of its own - no pun intended.
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  •  
    Nov 30 07:47 PM
    Apple seems to be aiming to improve the speed-performance of the iPhone with its acquisition of PA Semiconductor.

    Netbooks use the Atom chip, which is too slow for most gaming.

    I think both products will succeed. Apple could sell a more netbook-like product if it offered a large-format iTouch and/or iPhone.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Nov 30 08:25 PM
    While I don't believe that either platform is too slow for effective gaming, I do believe that the iPhone will be the more successful gaming platform.

    One only needs to take a look at the operating systems that each run in order to come to the same conclusion. The modified OSX, on which the iPhone runs, with the release of the iPhone SDK, has proven itself a popular platform, on which new and specific development is taking place. The operating systems that netbooks use are geared more towards higher-end development and not the netbooks themselves. One only needs to take a look at the software currently available, be it games or other to make that determination.

    The iPhone will be a more successful gaming platform of the two, until developers begin developing specifically for the netbook, which they believe (and maybe not incorrectly) that the netbook is a niche platform.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Nov 30 10:49 PM
    iPhone will win first. But Netbooks, and then Apple desktops will follow. iPhone will beat Gameboys of the world relatively quickly - by next Xmas, it will start to aproach iPod-like market share. Netbooks and desktops will beat the Wii's and XBox's of the world eventually, it will just take a little longer - 2-5 years maybe. Apple's ecosystem is going to steamroll industry after industry after industry ... the snowball, at this point, may be unstoppable.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Dec 01 08:33 AM
    netbook for gaming?? are you kidding?? who would want a computer that only perform the basic tasks, the net book will not be able to run pc games
    the iphone and ipod touch games are rewritten and therefore will actually perform like a real gaming machine .. if (big if) you could run a PC game on your netbook it will be a painful experience
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Dec 01 09:19 AM
    "Steve Jobs' marketing genius"?

    Once again, the subtle insinuation that this is mostly about marketing. It is not. It is mostly about a phenomenally good product that is miles ahead of its competitors, and a phenomenally good system for sales and distribution of music, video, and apps -- that is also miles ahead of its competitors.

    Apple has great marketing. It also has fantastic products. If you don't get that the former is useless without the latter you are missing the point of the iPhone (and the iPod) success.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Dec 01 09:42 AM
    Apple is rapidly taking this market. You have to be kidding that the Google phone is 'looking better'. In what way? No specifics there? Get real, there is no competition, iPhone is a far better device.

    Netbooks are just for nerds. Sure, lots will try to play games on them, but they will go back to their windoze XP and X-box, it's not going to be a factor in sales of 'net books'. People are buying those little PCs, but they look like make-up cases, and are no easier to carry, really, than a laptop.

    iPod touch is the most incredible device, and the games are just a part of it.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Dec 01 11:02 AM
    JS-DC...i agree. people focus on Jobs and they forget that this is a huge company with so many brilliant people in it, innovating like crazy! it really won't matter what other companies come up with in trying to compete. Apple won't just sit there, not innovating. if we're reading about a 'possible' competition, you better believe Apple is already countering it or already ahead of it! i didn't think i'd like reading books or gaming on my iPhone...but now i'm addicted to both! that screen is amazing!
    Netbooks will sell...but i love the size of the iPhone and the weight...it's wonderful...the little toy/phone/computer/boo... in my purse!
    oh...and did i mention that 'Oven', the app, had a great turkey recipe:)
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Dec 01 11:03 AM
    um... not a boo in my purse...a book...Moby Dick, as a matter of fact.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Dec 01 11:34 AM
    With the iPhone Apple took mostly pre-existing technology and polished it, then put it in a sleek Apple shell and marketed it. Steve Jobs is a marketing genius. A number of other companies had the capability to do what Apple did, but they didn't have the foresight or the connection with "hip" consumer that Apple does. Apple doesn't push the bleeding edge of technology more than they see what they can put together, and how they can best put things together and market it such that people will think its the next best thing since sliced bread. Case in point: the iPod, it was not the first mp3 player, it was merely the first massively popular mp3 player.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Dec 02 01:15 AM
    The problem with "prexisting technology" is that few companies, other than Apple, do anything remotely intelligent with it.

    For example, "Microsoft Surface".

    On Dec 01 11:34 AM penguin wrote:

    > With the iPhone Apple took mostly pre-existing technology and polished
    > it, then put it in a sleek Apple shell and marketed it. Steve Jobs
    > is a marketing genius. A number of other companies had the capability
    > to do what Apple did, but they didn't have the foresight or the connection
    > with "hip" consumer that Apple does. Apple doesn't push the bleeding
    > edge of technology more than they see what they can put together,
    > and how they can best put things together and market it such that
    > people will think its the next best thing since sliced bread. Case
    > in point: the iPod, it was not the first mp3 player, it was merely
    > the first massively popular mp3 player.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Dec 02 09:42 AM
    Penguin, you seem to be saying that if a company takes existing technology and makes it tremendously more usable and useful for consumers that that doesn't count as innovation, only as "marketing". I disagree. It doesn't matter to me whether my Palm Treo had the same *potential* capabilities on paper as the iPhone (it doesn't, but just for the sake of argument). The point is I didn't or couldn't use them. The iPhone doesn't just "polish pre-existing technology": it actually makes it usable.

    That's not marketing: that is technological genius and innovation.

    As to marketing, have you ever watched someone demo their iPhone to someone else? The iPhone sells itself.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Dec 02 09:24 PM
    The netbook will never take off with students as its screen and grunt are too limited. Students want to make Powerpoints and they use things like Adobe CS more and more.

    Schools introduce students to a broad range of applications, not just word processors which is all netbooks are good for (along with email and casual web browsing).

    Students need computers that can run any app they come across.

    So, as netbooks are the wrong tool for students, they aren't going to sell in their squillions and so the idea that they will become the dominate game platform, becomes invalid.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Dec 03 11:38 PM
    In today’s junk mail from a major electrical retail chain was a compro of netbooks and notebooks. Here’s what it said:

    Netbooks are great for:
    - Surfing the net
    - Instant messaging
    - Sending and receiving email
    - portability

    Notebooks are great for:
    - Photo/video editing
    - CD/DVD burning
    - Gaming
    - Office work

    Say no more.
    Reply | Link to Comment
  •  
    Dec 06 04:38 AM
    best provider of netbooks?
    Reply | Link to Comment
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