Market share dwindling for Nintendo and Sony's older hardware
Games released on Apple and Google’s mobile operating systems are expected to make $1.9 billion in combined revenues across the US this year, new data suggests.
If 2011 estimates put together by analyst group Flurry are accurate, it would mean that smartphone games now bring in more revenue than DS and PSP games combined.
But the declining health of both PSP and DS – two systems at the end of their cycle – was as much a contributing factor than the rise of mobile phone gaming. Both companies are at the starting stages of their new hardware; Nintendo’s 3DS and Sony’s PS Vita.
Flurry, which has tracked data for the first ten months of 2011, as well as the two years prior, said iOS and Android games are set to make $1.9 billion in the US this year. Nintendo’s DS and Sony’s PSP, by comparison, are due to make $1.4 billion, down from $1.6 billion in 2010 and $2.2 billion in 2009.
Flurry claims that Nintendo’s and Sony’s share for mobile game revenue has thus dwindled from 81 per cent (2009) to 42 per cent this year. iOS and Android games have tripled their market share from roughly 20 per cent in 2009 to nearly 60 per cent in just two years.
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they can make the audience think that the size of the pie didn't change year to year, suggesting that iOS/Android took an increasingly larger share of the same sized pie over time.
The truth of the matter is, DS and PSP sales have undoubtedly declined, but not entirely as a direct loss to the mobile devices. The pie got bigger as well!
There's lies, damn lies, and statistics...
