4 ms·

I am confused... the point is made more clear by comparing game consoles to phones? How? Not to mention you're comparing 4 iterations of the iPhone to arbitrary

I am confused... the point is made more clear by comparing game consoles to phones? How? Not to mention you're comparing 4 iterations of the iPhone to arbitrary console life cycles. If we're talking about pure numbers here, there are more substantive comparisons to be made. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_mobile_phones http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_mobile_pho...

notaddicted 15y ago
You can write games for iPhone, therefore it is a gaming platform. Also AFAIK the four generations of iPhones can all run the same software, which in a way makes it equivalent to a single console lifecycle, since consoles are never forwards compatible.
- veyron 15y ago
  Can you upgrade to ios4 on an original iphone?
  - tptacek 15y ago
    Listen to Marco's podcast sometime when he talks about the support burden for Instapaper owing to older iPhones. Sure, you can't bring an iPhone 1 up to iOS 4, but he can't cut loose all the old iPhones either. Aren't phones effectively on a 2-3 year subsidized schedule anyways? I know a minority of people do buy unsubsidized phones at full price, but that minority is tiny. (Finally, remember we're talking iPads here, not iPhones. Two very different markets.)
    - veyron 15y ago
      was asking because the parent wrote "Also AFAIK the four generations of iPhones can all run the same software, which in a way makes it equivalent to a single console lifecycle, since consoles are never forwards compatible." I didnt believe that statement :)
- vectorpush 15y ago
  You can write games for iPhone, therefore it is a gaming platform. A valid point, and I think when you're talking about today's hand-held gaming devices vs today's mobile phones, you've got a meaningful comparison because the consumer can reasonably substitute a phone for a PSP or similar, but I'm not sure what is meaningful about comparing the lifetime of Apple's work in the mobile sector to one or two iterations of various gaming consoles across various timeframes. Also AFAIK the four generations of iPhones can all run the same software Not true in many cases. Consider that the first two iPhone models can't even run fully featured firmware because of hardware limitations.

notaddicted 15y ago

You can write games for iPhone, therefore it is a gaming platform. Also AFAIK the four generations of iPhones can all run the same software, which in a way makes it equivalent to a single console lifecycle, since consoles are never forwards compatible.

veyron 15y ago
Can you upgrade to ios4 on an original iphone?
- tptacek 15y ago
  Listen to Marco's podcast sometime when he talks about the support burden for Instapaper owing to older iPhones. Sure, you can't bring an iPhone 1 up to iOS 4, but he can't cut loose all the old iPhones either. Aren't phones effectively on a 2-3 year subsidized schedule anyways? I know a minority of people do buy unsubsidized phones at full price, but that minority is tiny. (Finally, remember we're talking iPads here, not iPhones. Two very different markets.)
  - veyron 15y ago
    was asking because the parent wrote "Also AFAIK the four generations of iPhones can all run the same software, which in a way makes it equivalent to a single console lifecycle, since consoles are never forwards compatible." I didnt believe that statement :)
vectorpush 15y ago
You can write games for iPhone, therefore it is a gaming platform. A valid point, and I think when you're talking about today's hand-held gaming devices vs today's mobile phones, you've got a meaningful comparison because the consumer can reasonably substitute a phone for a PSP or similar, but I'm not sure what is meaningful about comparing the lifetime of Apple's work in the mobile sector to one or two iterations of various gaming consoles across various timeframes. Also AFAIK the four generations of iPhones can all run the same software Not true in many cases. Consider that the first two iPhone models can't even run fully featured firmware because of hardware limitations.