Apple 3G tops the iPhone on all scores
    Published:Jun 23, 2008

To Die For: Apple’s much- improved 3G iPhone ships with games of
unusual graphics and sound quality

Steven Van Hemert the Pixel Cowboy

Steve Jobs did it again last week, making 6-million first-generation
iPhone owners kick themselves in disgust as he made their geekware
near obsolete with the announcement of the new 3G iPhone.

I had been toying with the idea of getting one a few months back, but
fortunately decided to heed the old adage, “Never buy a first-
generation Apple product”.

I was one of the fools that bought the original iPod, only to have it
become rapidly outdated as Apple released an improved version every
three months. I’ve learnt my lesson now, and am even looking at this
new model thinking, what’s next?

What interested me most about the 3G iPhone launch though was the BBC
hands-on review. The journalist, having downloaded a web page in less
than half the time of the current generation phone using Edge, turned
her attention to the new apps, in particular, the games.

At least half her write up on the latest must-have phone dealt with
the games that come with it and the quality of the graphics and sound.
And it made me wonder: will Apple do to the portable gaming market
what they did to the portable music-playing market? In other words,
come from nowhere to completely dominate the market within a year .

Thing is, the iPhone can conceivably do anything the DS can, bar of
course the dual-screen display. The iPhone offers full touch- screen
operability, network connectivity, the ability to send and receive
voice and video, plus it has the Wii-like trick of tracking the tilt
and pitch of the device in your hands. Most of the games being
developed for the iPhone now are based on this simple functionality,
substituting a joystick for balance sensors.

With technology increasingly concerned with the convergence of
multiple devices into a single, portable über-gizmo, it makes perfect
sense that Apple should be looking at game studios to develop titles
specifically for the iPhone, adding robust portable gaming
functionality to a top-end phone and mp3 player.

At the iPhone launch last week there were already three game
developers showing off their wares, including Sega with a reworked
iPhone version of Super Monkey Ball.

Considering the 3G iPhone is now the same price as a PSP and being
targeted at the mass market, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Apple
actively courting a gaming audience while introducing millions more to
the world of mobile games.