Definitely created as it was a slow news day, but, hell, it' s fun to speculate;

Does Apple want to buy Nintendo? It seems unlikely to us, but that' s the latest internet gossip and speculation which is being fuelled by an article over on CNET, which has re-ignited the debate.

Any evidence for such wild mutterings? Well, to be honest there' s not a great deal. Last month, rumours from the US fingered LucasArts' tech director Mike Lampbell who' d apparently been switched to a secret Apple games project, which would apparently involve making iPod games. Conspiracy theorists immediately summoned the salmon of doubt to pooh-pooh this idea and speculated widely that Apple had another, bigger target in mind, namely Nintendo.

There' s little doubt Apple could afford a buyout after the success of the iPod, but would it make any sense? Well due to the way the stock market works, Japanese companies are notoriously difficult and costly to target with hostile takeovers, and given the effort its put into Wii and DS it' s unlikely Nintendo would sell, so maybe something else is going on?

Current conspiracy theory runs there may be some kind of deal going on with the new Mac Mini which could run Nintendo games or have Nintendo games made especially for it. With the Mac Mini being priced roughly the same as the PS3, the theorists suggest an acquisition of Nintendo would give Apple an instant ' in' into the console market with its new machine.

Seems like testing the outer limits of ' wildly speculative' to us, but certainly an interesting one to chew over on a quiet Monday afternoon.

If we see a new NintenMac appearing sometime next year you can spank us silly and call us Susan, but would an Apple-Nintendo partnership (however unlikely) float your boat?

Can' t see it myself. Nintendo' d rather implode than sell up.

in Poland on our news channel they said that S.Jobs send a letter to iwata declaring his interest in buying N or merging two companies.

I' m not sure how accurate this is - I' ve been searching all over the web and couldn' t find anything.

It would benefit apple to work with N - They need to fight MS on the gaming ground.And then there' s this thing called itunes that could distribute nintendo software to apple devices and all the cool media to nintendo systems.

hmmm.

That would be different. Imagine powering on your Wii, and acessing the internet from OSX... It' d be nice if they worked together, but I' m not sure I' d like anything else to be owned by major computer companies. Especially something like Nintendo.

There has been speculation about Apple buying/merging/partnering with Nintendo for a couple of years now.

...funny...

...i always thought apple was in bed with sony....

...apple have exclusive access to Sony Pictures...

..they have also announced officially that they will be supporting Blue-Ray.... ..even the Superdrive in my G5 is made by sony....

....this news seems little more than ill-informed gossip to me....

you' re more than ill-informed bish :)

Apple and Sony are enemies on portable audio front - Sony people got their asses kicked...no not even kicked - massacred by iPod.

They' ve been trying to comeback ever since (with no results)

Apple went Blue Ray like many other companies (Dell) cause they like the protection system.MS went HD-DVD cause Sony and Apple are after blue ray :)

ORIGINAL: ]GaNgStA[

you' re more than ill-informed bish :)

Apple and Sony are enemies on portable audio front - Sony people got their asses kicked...no not even kicked - massacred by iPod.

They' ve been trying to comeback ever since (with no results)

Apple went Blue Ray like many other companies (Dell) cause they like the protection system.MS went HD-DVD cause Sony and Apple are after blue ray :)

Correct!

Sony' s SonyEricsson Walkman mobile phones have been very successful. SonyEricsson has with the help of the Walkman brand grown to become one of the biggest mobile phone brands in the world at amazing speed.
Even though Sony' s mp3 players may be falling behind, their battle in the portable audio war is far from a failure.

SonyEricsson has with the help of the Walkman brand grown to become on of the biggest mobile phone brands in the world at amazing speed.

Really? I thought it was Samsung...

Still, Sony' s Walkman brand is awful now. They used to be great, but Apple have completely dominated the market, leaving Sony to compete with other eletronics companies since there' s nobody competing directly at Apple' s level.

At the current rate, mobile phones with the ability to play audio will eventually outsell the iPod. And with SonyEricsson being the most popular mobile phones when it comes to portable audio I think Sony' s chances are good.
What hindered the mobile phones from becoming big has been the small amount of storage. 1 GB isn' t enough for your music collection but with MemoryStick/SD card support today' s cell phones can have up to 4 GB. Lots of cell phones also have built in harddiscs of up to 4 GB.
Since everyone has a mobile phone it seems likely that people will choose to purchase mobile phones with audio playback which will save them the money that an iPod would require.

Ok, and what do you think Apple will do?

I don' t know as I don' t work there. They will of course try to counter with something else. Make cell phones, I don' t know.
Stupid question Majik. You think I believe they' ll just sit and watch? I' m not that stupid. Stop putting so much faith in Apple and realize that there' s some serious competition coming up. You' re like an Apple fanboy who think they' re indestructible. Nintendo made the NES and the SNES but started falling with the N64 and it was really ugly with the Gamecube. Sony made the successful PSX and PS2 and might fall with the PS3. What makes Apple so different?
Nothing can really tell what the future demand will look like and that almost makes the whole electronics industry into a lottery. Apple are doing great now but they can lose too.
Btw, I believe the biggest mobile phone company is Motorola followed by Nokia.

What makes Apple so different?

Apple are marketing gods.

Stop putting so much faith in Apple and realize that there' s some serious competition coming up

But it doesn' t work like that. To get the newest, nicest phones, you either have to sign into a 12 month contract or pay in excess of £300. There is and always will be a need for portable music players.

If Apple get into the mobile phone business, they' ll just be fighting on 2 fronts.

Apple are marketing gods.

Apple fanboyism right there.
If they are marketing gods then why aren' t Mac' s crushing PC' s?
Sony managed to make the PS2 succesful despite its many flaws and lacking support in the beginning so they have to be the real marketing gods.
I mean, Apple' s products has some impressive quality compared to Sony' s.

But it doesn' t work like that. To get the newest, nicest phones, you either have to sign into a 12 month contract or pay in excess of £300. There is and always will be a need for portable music players.

Everyone has a cell phone and you need to get a new quite often.
Today most companies, Vodafone for example, have very good deals which pretty much gives you the phones for free. Besides, for £300 you' re not only getting an mp3 player, you' re getting a phone, a digital camera, a web browser and much more. With 3G you have fast connection speeds and in the future you' ll be able to enjoy TV broadcast on your cell phones. And thanks to the fact that they use the telephone nets you don' t have to be in Wi-Fi hotspots to take advantage of some of the features. You can use a cell phone EVERYWHERE.
For the monthly fee you usually get to make free calls that makes it worth it.
I' m not the one saying that Apple will face tough competition from cell phones. It' s been said by educated analysts. I don' t have a link or anything but I read it in newspapers. I think it looks like it can be difficult for Apple to keep their dominance on the portable audio market.
Another interesting thing is that one of the probable reasons the DS was made was to compete with cell phones since the games on the cell phones became more advanced and that probably threatened Nintendo' s grip on the handheld market in Japan. Add to that the fact that cell phones also have touch screens and microphones and you' ll see that cell phones are indeed the future.

If they are marketing gods then why aren' t Mac' s crushing PC' s?

Because of software compatability. Shit, if everything that worked with Windows worked with iMacs, then i' d rather go with Apple as they' re far more reliable and efficient.

Everyone has a cell phone and you need to get a new quite often.

Why?

Y' know, i LOVE technology, i buy tons of stuff i don' t even need, but i don' t feel the need to keep buying new phones. A phone is a phone and the phone i bought 2 years ago still does the job i bought it for.

Today most companies, Vodafone for example, have very good deals which pretty much gives you the phones for free.

Yeah they do, but you have to sign up to a 12 month contract.

Add to that the fact that cell phones also have touch screens and microphones and you' ll see that cell phones are indeed the future.

Ok, so how big will these fully fuctional web browsing, game playing phones be?!

I though the idea was for phones to get increasingly smaller. The screens are way to small to play real games or watch movies on.

Apple and Sony are enemies on portable audio front - Sony people got their asses kicked...no not even kicked - massacred by iPod.

...i don' t think apple ever originally intended the ipod to compete directly with walkman... ...ipod was a surprise hit... ...apple had no idea that it would snowball into what it is today...

....EVERY portable music company (samsung, awia, phillips, etc) is getting whupped buy apple....

Because of software compatability. Shit, if everything that worked with Windows worked with iMacs, then i' d rather go with Apple as they' re far more reliable and efficient.

I' ve always wondered why the software compatibility with Mac' s are so bad as I don' t know much about computers. Do you know?
Anyway, I think Windows is great. The only thing I like with Mac' s are the gone wirers.

Why?

Y' know, i LOVE technology, i buy tons of stuff i don' t even need, but i don' t feel the need to keep buying new phones. A phone is a phone and the phone i bought 2 years ago still does the job i bought it for.

As time goes by cell phones break and older technologies aren' t used anymore. It' s only a matter of time before the GSM net isn' t used anymore and then people will have to get 3G phones. And they will get the ones with audio playback.

Yeah they do, but you have to sign up to a 12 month contract.

So? What is it with people and their fear of commiting to something?

Ok, so how big will these fully fuctional web browsing, game playing phones be?!

I though the idea was for phones to get increasingly smaller. The screens are way to small to play real games or watch movies on.

Phones gets the sizes that people want. Most 3G phones are bigger than older phones for two reasons. One is that the technology needs more space. The second is that the screens are bigger to take advantage of the technology. I have a great 3G phone that is more than a year old. I watch movies, play my music and play games on it. The screen size is good. Portability and funtionality in one perfect mix.
Also, digital distribution has come far on cell phones. You can buy games, music and videos directly to your phone.

Also, digital distribution has come far on cell phones. You can buy games, music and videos directly to your phone.

And yet Apple still control 80% of the digital music distribution market.

Yes because mobile phones hasn' t had the storage advantage until now. I' m not talking about the current situation. As of now Apple truly dominates the portable audio market. But if you think a little you should not be surprised if they lose their dominance in the future.
I' m not saying Apple will lose 100%. What I am saying is that it' s very likely that they will lose and that it' s looking good for Sony on that front.
What' s disturbing me is that you' re constantly protecting Apple just like Sony fanboys protect Sony. And then you go trashtalk the Sony fanboys.
Sony has the biggest marketshare of the videogame industry. Does that mean Microsoft and Nintendo has no chance? No, as you' ve said many times.
Same thing goes for Apple VS phones.
Personally I' ve never seen the greatness of Apple' s products. I' d rather have a Windows PC than a Mac and I' d rather have a phone with audio playback than an iPod.

What I am saying is that it' s very likely that they will lose and that it' s looking good for Sony on that front.

Sony are the idiots who shot themselves in the foot by forcing ATRAC on people and refusing for a long time to enable MP3 playback.

Sony f**ked up when created Mini-Disc.

Sony' s best performing audio players were the original Sony Walkmans that used tapes. I have NO faith in Sony whatsoever as far as the portable music business is concerned.

Yes because mobile phones hasn' t had the storage advantage until now.

Any they will never have a storage advantage over dedicated portable media players. There are 60GB+ MP3 players out there already, i don' t expect phones to get that kind of storage space for quite some time and when they do, dedicated portable media players will have jumped ahead again.

Sony has the biggest marketshare of the videogame industry. Does that mean Microsoft and Nintendo has no chance? No, as you' ve said many times. Same thing goes for Apple VS phones.

That would require Apple to make as many mistakes as Sony have been doing.

If PS3 was simply the next-generation of Playstation (a games platform) instead of some incestuous mess, and it was released at the same price PS2 was released, then Nintendo and Microsoft would have had very little chance to take the top spot.

As it is, Sony can' t kurb their arrogance and their lust for more power and money and are likely to be kicked into touch by the bigger guy.

I' m not saying Apple won' t be beaten, i' m saying iPod won' t lose the portable music/multi-media domination they have secured.