“Nintendo’s president shrugged off the just unveiled iPad tablet computer from Apple as delivering ‘no surprises,’ and displayed as little enthusiasm for 3-D technology and high-definition upgrades for games. ‘It was a bigger iPod Touch,’ Satoru Iwata said of the much anticipated device shown Wednesday by Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs,” Yuri Kageyama.
MacDailyNews Take: The iPad FUD talking points memo begins with “It’s just a bigger iPod touch.”
Kageyama reports, “He made no pretense to hide he was totally unimpressed with the iPad. ‘There were no surprises for me,’ said Iwata.”
“Apple says the iPad is a new kind of mobile device that is more intimate than a laptop but is packed with more functions than a mobile phone,” Kageyama reports.
Kageyama reports, “On Thursday, Nintendo reported April-December profit fell 9 percent as solid year-end sales failed to make up for the weak results for the earlier part of the fiscal year, a rising yen and a price cut for the Wii.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We expected more from Nintendo’s president. Like manners and some imagination, to name just two. Of course, seeing Apple’s A4 SoC, a faster, more efficient processor than NIntendo (or anyone else) can buy off the shelf along with DS/DSi sales evaporating before your very eyes can take its toll, we suppose.
You know what’s so great about Nintendo’s DSi? You can set up your WiFi at Nintendo’s system level with, say, a WEP security password and then run a game and, for some incomprehensible reason (to an Apple product user at least), be asked to set up WiFi again, this time within the game itself which, oh by the way, doesn’t work with a WEP password. Then you get to reset your WiFi base station and try all versions of WPA passwords which also don’t work, so you resort to opening up your WiFi to the world, so that your daughter can download a heavily-pixellated rhinestone-studded denim skirt. Then you get to reactivate your WiFi’s WEP password with the anticipation of doing this rigamarole all over again approximately 30 times per day for the next two weeks until your daughter realizes that that her hand-me-down, no-longer-activated, two-and-a-half-year-old original iPhone with the cooler, better-looking games that cost 1/6th the price or less (many of them free) is way, way more fun. Then you get to eBay the DSi at a loss to the next sucker and get on with your life. Thanks for spending so much time thinking out the user experience, Nintendo.
Now STFU and take your medicine like a man, Satoru. And, oh, by the way, nice stylus. (smirk)
Nintendo’s president is exhibiting some of the classic signs that accompany the recognition of harsh reality: Denial, disbelief, and self-delusion.
Reality is the leading cause of stress amongst those in touch with it. – Jane Wagner
Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead. We must therefore accept it without complaint when they sometimes collide with a bit of reality against which they are dashed to pieces. – Sigmund Freud
I guess they subscribe to the thought process of, “If I keep wishing it is a bad product, then it will be.”
Sorry, closing your eyes and and saying “I don’t wanna!!” is what 2 year olds do.
Going to be an interesting year.
In Japanese “unimpressed” actually translates into English as “this scares us more than Godzilla ever did”.
I suspect that Nintendo’s hand held game systems are starting to feel the heat from Apple’s hand held (multifunction platform) devices and it’s not going to get easier for them.
“Wii don’t need no stinkin’ iPads…”
Sorry, but the DS has buttons and for that it will ALWAYS have a better gaming experience than Apple’s products. That is simply a fact.
So, a bunch of people keep saying “it’s just an oversized iPod touch/iPhone”
and? WTF. I like my iPhone 3gs. The browsing experience is amazing even on a small screen. I have my music. I have access to all my email accounts. iTunes. YouTube. Maps. Etc.
I can’t wait to own an iPad and browse the web and everything else with it’s responsive touch screen.
SO Jonathan you want to buy something that does exactly the same thing as your 3gs….yes my friend you are a muppet!!!
I suggest Nintendo worry about their own hide!
Bought a Wii because I was an avid Nintendo fan and thought it would revolutionize the way I played games. Now I set it up in the basement so my could mom do yoga. EPIC fail.
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Oh, I should add that I have a Wii and a DS in the house and love them both but I have a iPod Touch too and the Apple eco-system really does take their devices to a whole new level of service, and convenience not to mention functionality. It’s hard to compete with Apple that at least at this point in time. I’m sure the competition are still trying to get a handle on how to effectively challenge what Apple has built.
Since the iPod touch is increasingly kicking Nintendo’s ass, even if the iPad is just the same but with a bigger screen, then Nintendo should still be worried.
yes this is a revolutionary device that will probably take over the world and I can’t wait to get v2 when they put a front camera but it was pretty dissapointing.. here was apples chance to blow the world away again with an amazing product and they delivered the bare minimum of what everyone was expecting. less than minimum cause it can’t even freaking multitask, c’mon apple, what gives!
My kid has a DS. After using my iPhone for games, and then using the DS, I thought the DS was just awful.
It is a bigger iPod Touch! The iPod Touch is a pocket tablet. Now we have a magazine sized tablet. Isn’t that the whole point of a tablet? That is to provide a touch interface with large screen combined with software optimized to work with touches instead of a mouse. I don’t get why people are “disappointed” to get exactly what everyone was clamoring for. Sure it is missing some features, but if the market demands it, new versions will come. The tidal wave is in the apps that will be developed to make the iPad the most usable computer for the everyday tasks of the common person. It is not to replace everything a notebook or desktop can do, but to provide the most common and usable functions in a way never before offered. This is the natural progression of the revolution started by the iPhone, and it will only get better.
By the way, as for multitasking – two words: battery life. I would much rather have longer battery life.
@Macarina…
“the DS has buttons and for that it will ALWAYS have a better gaming experience than Apple’s products”
No, it will always be a It’s a DIFFERENT experience. Both have advantages and disadvantages. If you PREFER buttons to multi-touch, that’s a different story.
Personally, I think the DS looks and feels like a piece of junk. But maybe that’s just me.
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I bet these other companies would love to close their eyes and wish this product away………
For those complainers wanting to have multitasking beyond what is possible now with the iPhone OS, I suggest you pop a stick of gum in your mouth and take a walk.
We are looking at two quite different devices here, two devices that sort of overlap in apparent functionality. The new A4 SoC chip powering the iPad is a great upgrade over about anything powering a cell phone. This pretty much takes the steam out of “It’s just a bigger iPod touch.”. And makes it better at games than cell phones or iPods. But, comparing it to a Wii? Macarina may have thought (s)he was burying the iPad with the truth, but the iPad was not designed to compete with multi-core, multi-GHz, but essentially single-purpose consoles. They excel at playing graphics-intensive games. The iPad does not. The iPad, however, excels at most everything else a computer is capable of. And if you tell your boss it’s “work related”, he just might believe you.
He’s actually right – there weren’t any surprises because virtually all of the details had been rumored prior to the release. That doesn’t mean it’s not an impressive product, certainly much more than any other tablet has been.
Apple has put forth the best tablet platform ever created. Now developers need to take advantage of it, and judging by what has happened with the iPhone and the App Store, we’re going to see some very interesting apps in the coming year.
Why would people prefer fixed buttons over multi touch interaction with games. It’s like the guy sees a car and asks, where do you put the horse?
Like if saying it’s a big iPod Touch would be depreciative. And what could be better than a big iPod Touch? Nothing!!!
It’s not quite a giant iPod touch since it has iWork and you can attach a keyboard. My friends and co-workers are asking me a million questions. They love it.
The closed nature of it (including the closed file system) is a plus, except for the geeks. This will sell like crazy. It may hurt Apple because it is a laptop replacement, but Apple knows this is coming. Control the pain now rather than letting the pain get worse and spread.
I will definitely buy one.
@DLMeyer
How can you make a claim that the iPod does NOT excel at playing games until you actually get to play some games on one? I’m certainly reserving judgement on that point.
As far as games excelling or not, that’s really up to the imagination and skill of the game developers is it not?
On every platform, games and all applications actually can be good bad or middling depending on who develops them. Right?
Me? I’d love a giant iPod touch!
“It’s a bigger iPod Touch.”
And we all know what a failure THAT product is.
MDN expected “manners?”
Physician, heal thyself.
Just another little man with size envy
Now STFU and take your medicine like a man, Satoru. And, oh, by the way, nice stylus.
You owe me a mouthful of Diet Coke and a new keyboard, MDN!
They are all scared to death. As a gaming device, the iPad is going to blow your sox off. The few titles shown at the keynote was just freaking amazing and moving the controls around the screen is so futuristic. Can’t wait to get this thing and all the apps designed for it.
No the 1st FUD talking-point is “Its just a big iPhone – but it doesn’t even make phone calls!!”
How can you expect him to like it? He’s already getting killed by the iPhone/iPodTouch. He sees all the Apple devices as the enemy. The iPad is a new and scary threat to his business.
Hey, if all it was, was an iPod touch on steroids, that would be great at $499 – or more! I’m pretty stoked about it.
And just when the fsck did this “Epic fail” geek shit start? Christ, how moronic…
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, and finally you win.
Marketing 101
When first encountering a product that may well mark your demise — a shrug is as good a first response as anything.
Generally followed by denial — then outright panic!
“Now STFU and take your medicine like a man, Satoru.”
Funniest . MDN . Take . Ever !
My kids have Nintendo handhelds, and they connect to our network without a hitch.
I only had to configure them each one time.
That said, they have lost many, many, stylus’.
*shrug*
Heh… I put the italics on the wrong word! LOL!!!
My wife, the gaming nut, has owned nearly every console and handheld Nintendo has ever released. Recently, though, she’s been using her iPod touch more and more for gaming and her DSi much less. It’s probably the convenience more than anything else. For the DSi, she has to decide she wants a game, then make a trip out to Best Buy or GameStop to buy it. With the touch, it’s instant gratification — she reads a good review online, is intrigued, and is playing the game a few minutes later. And since she generally plays one game at a time, that’s bad news for Nintendo.
Nintendo always lags when it comes to modernizing their gaming experience and that’s kicked them in the butt before. They pretty much lost an entire console generation by sticking with cartridges while Sega and Sony moved to discs. Now as gaming is done increasingly online, Nintendo is late to the party. Difficult wireless setup is bad enough, and then there’s the friend code system.
——RM
The irony is that they released a console not to long ago called the DSiXL, and as I recall, that was just a DSi with a bigger screen. Talk about hypocrisy.
That said, I do like my original DS quite a lot. Yes, I appreciate the graphics are pretty terrible now, but it can be a lot of fun.
And for the record, before I get a lot of hate comments, I like the idea of the iPad too.
It’s ok to like more than one product, people. They can coexist together quite happily.
This is an interesting phenomenon. When Apple mentions a rival product they always praise it initially before stating then that they think they can do better. For instance during the iPad presentation Jobs mentioned and complimented the Kindle with no apparent irony (not that I saw anyway…). Compare that to the reaction from rivals to Apple’s products – from Rob Glaser to Steve Ballmer to this Nintendo guy, they all seem to go out of their way to do the adolescent “I’m sooo unimpressed” routine. One would think that if these people had any degree of confidence in their companies’ abilities to produce quality merchandise with a degree of imagination and inventiveness they would welcome the competition, and think that the raising of the bar is a good thing for all concerned. Honestly, given the over-the-top dissing anyone would think they were scared!
@ B
thank you!!! I hate that “epic fail” shit. anyone who says that should be punched once in the face every time they use it
@Lord Robin..
Not to mention you can generally get the lite version or demo of a game to try a level or 2 to see if it`s really to your liking, and yes, no planning anything around it, just find it at on the app store and off you go.
I keep hearing complaints about the lack of multi-tasking, but to date I’ve only heard one scenario:
I Can’t Listen To Pandora While I (surf web, use Pages, etc…)
I’m sure there might be 2 other apps you might want to use at the same time, but it seems no one can really think of any, other than Pandora and Something Else.
Okay, well this is a decent point, for those who don’t already have an iPhone, but I doubt it’s really enough to hump the market. I don’t see a lot of people madly listening to Pandora on their lappys/netbooks while working. Actually, most of the people I see working at wifi cafes have white earbuds disappearing into their pockets, which tells me they have a separate device for music that is not connected to their lappy. This takes some of the wind out of the Pandora argument, but there must be something else to complain about.
I’m wondering what another valid scenario might be – two or more 3rd party apps that you just can’t bear to run alone, that actually do you some good running at the same time. What do you think?
Each to their own is my thought on this matter. I love my mac stuff but also own what I consider to be the finest game machine ever made, namely the SNES. Why do I love that machine after all these years? Because it plays 2D games via a buttoned game pad which suits my 61 year old reactions down to the ground. At the end of the day there’s room enough for everyone in my eyes.
The DS is like something out of the seventies it has nowhere to go compared to the Touch iPhone, iPad. Interaction is the future of gaming as they know well with the Wii though for them the end is nigh as others combine that factor with far more advanced systems on the gaming consoles while in handhelds Apple will do the same to them. They are dead men walking.
@ Klob
I think that Steve might know that Jeff Bezos doesn’t really want to be in the hardware business. My hunch is the Amazon created the Kindle to start a fire under the eBook market (hence the name, right?) but I think they might be perfectly happy to just sell a lot of eBooks and not fuss around with all that hardware production.
There is little reason to buy a dedicated reader now, other than the advantages the Kindle still has, which are few – longer battery life and maybe arguable easier on the eyes (or not). As the iPad improves, those advantages will become less and less significant, and be dwarfed by the advantages of the nearly-full-on computing experience you get on top of your eBook reading.
the wii os mimics os 10.3 blatantly
so much for the big n’s originality
Now, THAT’S what I call a take, MDN!
BFD….who cares what anyone thinks…
I want my iPad now!!!
I hate stupid pepole with NO vision!!
Bite the pillow, Satoru Iwata, bite the pillow.
I love my Wii, but frankly Nintendo – I could use a little innovation in your product line now… the novelty is waring off.
ChrissyOne,
Loopt-type and Messenger-type apps are the other two I hear about.
Neither applies to me, but what does annoy me is to not be able to browse the web while still listening to my baseball game stream from my MLB application.
I bought a DS Lite. Used it three or four times. Gave it away.
With a couple of games it was $250.
The iPad looks like a very good value in comparison. Especially since it will be all the computer many people (and especially kids) will ever need.
Yea the iPod touch is a failure with record sales!!!!!!! Oh what a failure!
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“We expected more from Nintendo’s president. Like manners and some imagination, to name just two.”
This was a fantastic way to start out the commentary, IMHO. The rest of the response is dead on, as well. Great take MDN.
You can smell the fear.
To the lion it is either sex or food.
Eat up, Apple.
The DS is one forth the price of the iPad. It is a one trick pony with several titles. It does not compete with the Touch, or the iPad so why even bring it up, MDN.
Why do people seem to get so offended here – when others don’t oogle over a new Apple product?
I’m sorry to say his opinion is in the majority! Had Apple added a webcam so loved ones could connect face to face, then “intamacy” could be claimed! I’m still getting one regardless! It’s growing on me!
@ ragarcia
“…but what does annoy me is to not be able to browse the web while still listening to my baseball game stream from my MLB application.”
That MLB app is so cool it makes me wish I liked Baseball.
and displayed as little enthusiasm for 3-D technology….
WRONG!! WRONG!! WRONG!! Check out the enthusiasm Hollywood has. Avitar,(which really is not my kind of picture), is making MORE than Titanic. THIS year Sony plans 3dtv, 3d playstation, and 3d blu-ray movies. If I can shoot and edit in 3d, than it’s a bet. I’m gett’n it.And Sony is not the only one. Panasonic 3d plasma is on it’s way.
Oh crap! You mean I can’t listen to Pandora while I surf the web? That’s it game over for Apple. That’s got to be the number one feature that every person on the planet must have.
“seeing Apple’s A4 SoC, a faster, more efficient processor than NIntendo (or anyone else) can buy off the shelf along with DS/DSi sales evaporating before your very eyes can take its toll, we suppose.”
Strange comment seeing 2009 was the biggest year for the DS. The Iphone and Ipod touch are having no effect on Nintendo.
The A4 comment is strange too seeing there’s rumours of Nintendo using Tegra 2 for their next DS. Tegra 2 is an dual core ARM based SoC with NVIDIA graphics ands guess what, it’s “off the shelf”.
Another example of the amazing ignorance of MDN for anything not Apple.
BTW Blizzard if you`re reading this, Starcraft Touch!
*hint* that`s a license to print money.
Loved the quotes!
C1: “I keep hearing complaints about the lack of multi-tasking, but to date I’ve only heard one scenario:
I Can’t Listen To Pandora…”
How about the one I read recently: Reading a textbook on the iPad and want to take notes… or reading textbook, want to look up something on web or in dictionary, etc.
Sure notes could be built into the iBook app, but so far it’s not.
So there’s a very valid use for multi tasking.
@ twilightmoon
Agreed, and you raise a valid scenario. I’m not sure that it would be that hard to just quite one app and launch another, but we’ll see. I have a feeling, as you say, there will be a notes function in the book app.
“Quit”, not quiet. >.<
Patience, young ipad-awan.
I’ve just put one of those angry jackals from Avatar on the grill. Who’s hungry?
Just a bigger iPod touch? But with GPS and magnetometer and microphone? And 3G connectivity at a somewhat reasonable price and no contract? Which means that it is actually a bigger iPhone without the cell phone and contract…
Well, that’s just what I have been asking for since the iPhone came out. And that’s why it will sell in big numbers. Apple’s manufacturers will not be able to make them fast enough.
Not impressive? On the contrary, it is yet another impressive leap of electronics design and integration from a company that is synonymous with innovation. And its starting price is low enough to make all of the Wintel netbook manufacturers and proprietary handheld game makers sweat bullets. There goes your $20-$30 per game, dudes…Slept any since last Thursday?? I doubt it.
Hmm.. I was going to say you have an amazing ignorance for anything not Nintendo, but you seem to have a pretty big ignorance for Nintendo, too.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704402404574527572534809890.html
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/01/wii-sales-nintendo-profits-down-year-over-year.ars
What was that again about 2009 being the biggest year ever for the DS and the iPhone/iPod Touch having no effect?
Unfortunately, MDN, DS sales aren’t “evaporating”. Not even close. So, you simply made up that part. Which is pretty lame.
this entire generation of consoles suck
the ps2 , gamecube and dreamcast were miles better
the new ones are either underpowered toys – wii , unreliable noisy junk – 360 , or souped up dvd players with no games – ps3
C’mon people…do you seriously think Nintendo’s top guy is going to say…Wow, what a great product. It is sooo much superior to anything we have produced. Gosh our designers are so inferior to Apple’s.
Of course he has to crap on it, you would too given the same position. Ballmer does it all the time. Its their job. The beauty of it is…the more the negativity from these guys, the better the product must be!
Oh…and I am usually not a player of games on the computer but every time I see that pic of the iPad and the driving game, I’m thinkin………hmmmmmmm!
@Buster
You’re right. If the iPad were being ignored, then there might be reason to worry. The fact that it is still the talk of the technophiles means that it has chops.
Not that Apple seems to worry too much what other people think, anyway. Apple dances to its own tune. Apple has continued working on less popular devices and, in contrast, completely reworked highly popular models (e.g., iPod mini) when people said that it was a mistake to do so. It’s good to be the king…
I keep hearing complaints about no multitasking. iPhone does multitask. It only does it with Apple’s apps. Apple’s main concern is good user experience. Apple can insure that their apps don’t waist cpu and battery resources.
Another stupid fskup.
Flush his sushi ass down the commode with the others.
No surprises:
It was expected to be a tablet. It is.
It was expected to be awesome. It is.
It was expected to run the iPhone/iPod OS and apps. It does.
But on a bigger screen. It does.
All of that is awesome—no surprises needed!
Wait, I guess there were some surprises: cheap 3G with no contract, iWork, the custom Apple chip, the physical keyboard option, and the PRICE.
@Macarina
The DS has physical buttons. Therefore some people will ALWAYS prefer if for CERTAIN retro game types.
Yet it lacks tilt and multitouch, is slow, has a tiny screen, and has no app store. So it will never catch up to Apple.
Facts.
Mr Reeee, are you telling me – without having seen it yourself – that the iPad, with its single CPU core running at 1GHz is going to be a better gaming experience than a console with multiple CPU cores running at 3.5GHz? Doesn’t sound reasonable.
Will it play entertaining games? Sure. Will it do a better job than an iPhone? Unquestionably. I never even suggested that it wouldn’t be able to play games reasonably well. Not once. Just that it would not excel at what certain other computers consider their bread and butter. That isn’t what it’s about. Can they run iWork or MSOffice? Not a chance. Nor even a made-for-them version. It isn’t what THEY do. Apparently, they don’t even surf the net worth a fig. Else more users would bother.
Perhaps if the ipad came preloaded with hello ikitty he’d be impressed.
It’s obvious that Apple is Nintedos greatest threat! Their business model will never be the same or as profitable!
You know what is ironic? Dismissing the iPad as a large iPod Touch when your company is about to start selling the DSi XL (a large DSi). The last time Nintendo surprised us was last year with the unveiling of the Wii Vitality Sensor, a peripheral that will surely corner the market of hospital patients, particularly those who are comatose.
Free Nintendo DS Lite Games Download (NDS Roms)
http://www.tips29.com/2010/01/free-nintendo-ds-lite-games-download.html
“Nintendo always lags when it comes to modernizing their gaming experience and that’s kicked them in the butt before. They pretty much lost an entire console generation by sticking with cartridges while Sega and Sony moved to discs. Now as gaming is done increasingly online, Nintendo is late to the party.”
Apple is late to the party sometimes too, took them a while for SD Card Slots, still no Blu-Ray, still no fingerprint recognition. I love Apple but it really pisses me off that I can’t make a Blu-Ray disk with iDVD.
“Why would people prefer fixed buttons over multi touch interaction with games. It’s like the guy sees a car and asks, where do you put the horse?”
You’re obviously not a gamer are you? Gamers like to float their fingers on buttons, something you can’t do on iPod Touch or iPhone. I downloaded Mega Man II and Sonic the Hedgehog on my iPhone, these games are normally easy for me on traditional handhelds and consoles. Oh. My. God. It was like trying to learn how to play video games on iPhone!
That being said, the Nintendo DS still has better titles at this point in time than iPhone. There is only a few interesting games on iPhone. DS has games like Final Fantasy, Pokemon, Mario, Zelda, comign soon Golden Sun 3, ect. I’m into RPGs and so far there is not a single decent RPG released yet for the iPhone OS platform. Just saying…
The iPad does indeed look like a giant iPod touch. But, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I wasn’t sure I would use my iPod touch very much but I bought it because I felt like I would use it more than an iPod nano. I was right about that. As it turns out, I have loved my iPod touch. Interestingly, I only use it for music maybe 10% of the time.
I will be looking at the iPad when it comes out.
I’ve never been impressed with Nintendo. When I think of the hours of my life lost playing their boring, repetitive games…
But at least their President got the idea that:
The iPad is a BIG iPod Touch that does 3G. The end.
Why MDN considers this fact to be FUD is inconceivable. It’s OTHER comments about the iPad that are FUD. Deal with it MDN.
hi there one thing nintendo dsi is epic fail becuase nintendo dose not want there nintendo dsi become a full blown nano computer that would have made the dsi the domanate player and crush there compution why dont nintendo just go back and bring the nintendo dsi 2 out as a full blown nano pc say like a duo core or a quad core cpu 1 gb of ram and 4 gb flash drive suport flash html5 video quick time players and why wont nintendo have video confrencing video recording the dsi could have been the first full blown nano pc if nintendo was smart enough
hi there one thing nintendo dsi is epic fail becuase nintendo dose not want there nintendo dsi become a full blown nano computer that would have made the dsi the domanate player and crush there compution why dont nintendo just go back and bring the nintendo dsi 2 out as a full blown nano pc say like a duo core or a quad core cpu 1 gb of ram and 4 gb flash drive suport flash html5 video quick time players and why wont nintendo have video confrencing video recording the dsi could have been the first full blown nano pc if nintendo was smart enough
I’ve nevered cared much for iPhone/iPod Touch games. I Find touchscreen controls awkward. Same with iPad.