“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!