Please forgive the obligatory "i"-joke headline. Ahem...

iPhone users worldwide currently have their panties in a bunch over announcement of the software development kit that developers and consumers alike have been waiting for breathlessly since the iPhone's launch last year.

This SDK will allow for the development of applications that range from the mundane, like a port of medical information databases for doctors from the aging Palm platform over to the iPhone, to the convenient, such as AIM support at long last, to the fun, such as...well, let's talk about that one.


iPhone-owning gamers have long wondered what the device might be capable of in the way of gaming. As exact hardware specs have been unearthed by diehard fans, we've learned quite a bit about the iPhone. We've learned that the processor runs somewhere around 500MHz and that there are about 32MB of RAM onboard. The graphics are based on Core Animation and Core Video, which are both Mac OS X technologies, and the entire system runs on a mobile, streamlined version of that same operating system.

In the underground development scene of "jailbroken" iPhones, so named because homebrew programs can be installed on them, we have seen a variety of games implement the touchscreen and accelerometer controls in interesting ways, but all of them have remained relatively simple. Indeed, one of the most advanced uses of the iPhone for gaming until now has been a homebrew emulator of the NES.

Today's announcements prove that the iPhone is not just the most well-designed mobile phone on the market, but also a competitive gaming platform. Although the processor and memory mentioned above may sound paltry compared to today's consoles and PCs, the iPhone actually enjoys a higher clock-speed processor than any of last generation's home machines, and its memory allocation isn't that dissimilar.

Compare the system to today's handheld gaming giants and the iPhone is even more attractively positioned: it blows the Nintendo DS out of the water from a technical standpoint and enjoys its two most-prized features: wireless connectivity through the Bluetooth/Wi-Fi combo and its touchscreen. Compared to the PSP, the iPhone enjoys a slightly faster processing system and the same amount of RAM.

Although given less than a week with a beta version of the SDK, both Electronic Arts and Sega featured products at today's event. EA showed off a mobile version of Spore, the highly-anticipated game being ported to nearly every gaming platform. The demo, while certainly removed from the PC experience, showcased a fun companion application to the home version. Having Spore on hardware these days is a 21st century version of that most famous of gaming benchmarks: "Yes, it plays Doom."

Sega featured a full-blown version of Super Monkey Ball, a "natural choice" for the phone given its accelerometer (what makes the Wii's remote so magical). Ethan Einhorn, Associate Producer from Sega, said that, "We underestimated what the iPhone was able to do from the start...we had to fly in another artist to scale up the art to match what the iPhone could actually output." Apple internally developed a 3D space fighter game similar to Wing Commander that was also displayed. All of these ran at full-screen resolution and with zippy frame rates.

If Nintendo and Sony weren't watching today's announcements from Cupertino, they'd better find a recording of the action. The iPhone's power, when unleashed, seemingly rivals the innovation of the DS and the power of the PSP. Developers have long been infatuated with putting games on mobile phones but have never been able to succeed; just ask anyone who had an N-Gage. It's always been an awkward, or underpowered, or space-limited misadventure, and usually all three at once. The iPhone SDK offers them the ability to associate themselves with one of the most highly-regarded consumer products available today and to also develop for a platform that almost strikes the perfect compromise between power and possibility.

Where Sony and Nintendo go from here will be interesting. Both products will inarguably continue to own the market, with massive install bases. But potential new customers may stay away and put their money toward an iPhone (or iPod Touch, also compatible) instead. Additionally, Nintendo risks losing innovative projects to developers who love the similar flexibility of the iPhone but also crave its location-aware and online capabilities. Sony, more comfortable with a hardcore niche in portable gaming, has less to fear but should be far from unconcerned.

Competition is a wonderful thing. The arrival of the iPhone as a legitimate portable gaming platform can only serve to strengthen the quality and breadth of products consumers are offered. It may also critically shape the successors to the DS and the PSP. The iPhone is pressuring devices across the mobile landscape. Apple already offers the best combination by far of mobile browsing, mapping, photo-viewing, music-listening, video-watching, and e-mailing in the cellular universe. The software that developers can begin releasing in late June will only serve to add more and more value to the iPhone.

How successful can dedicated devices remain in its wake? Both Nintendo and Sony will be pressured to either make their devices even more portable or to add a significant number of new features. Whether they meant to or not, Apple just accelerated the hardware timetables for the successors to the DS and PSP by at least a year.