Apple iPod touch effect starting to bite

Nintendo has reported its first half-year loss in seven years. For the six months to September 30, the Japanese gaming giant reported a $24.7 million loss. This was on the back of its sales slipping by 34 percent, in part due to lower demand for the Wii console, but also due to the Apple iPod touch effect on the DS. When questioned about the Apple effect recently, Nintendo of America’s President Reggie Fils-Aime told Forbes that Apple’s iPhone and iPod were “absolutely” larger threats than the strong sales of Microsoft's recently revamped Xbox 360.

The loss is the first net loss for Nintendo over the first half of a given fiscal year in the past seven years.

Nintendo’s forecast for the full financial year are just as grim, with sales of its Wii console expected to slip further. Adding to Nintendo’s troubles is the delay of its highly-anticipated 3DS console to March 2011, its planned upgrade for its rapidly aging DS line of handhelds.

The iPod touch, coupled with the iPhone and iPad is widely thought to be doing for Apple in the casual gaming market what the original click-wheel iPod did for Apple in the music player market. Apple claims that it now sells more iPods in one quarter than the DS line and Sony’s PSP combined, although only some of these are used for gaming.

While Nintendo had forewarned the market that it sales were stagnating, its shares closed 0.7 percent down. [via BBC]

By Electronista Staff

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industry, gaming, Microsoft, Nintendo, Wii, Xbox, Xbox 360, Apple, iPod touch 4G