Next on Apple's agenda: video game supremacy

The basic premise of this article is sound, but there some sloppy reporting when it comes to specifics.

Whereas console makers such as Nintendo and Sony often sell their platforms at a loss in order to capitalize on game revenues, Apple's strategy is the opposite.

Sony and Microsoft have burned through billions of dollars in recent years by selling their consoles at a loss, so this is half true. Nintendo, however, sells its products for a profit from the very first day.

Although Apple said it plans to sell its 10 millionth iPod by the end of the year, the install base for both the DS and the PSP is substantially larger. Nintendo's has sold more than 23 million DS systems in North America since its launch in November, 2004, while Sony has sold about 13 million PSPs since March, 2005, according to data from research company the NPD Group.

Oh my, the problems we have. Apple has sold 160 million iPods, through all the different models. Apple has said it plans to sell ten million iPhones this year (not including the few million sold last year). It has never given sales totals for the iPod touch, nor sales estimates. Most financial analysts are projecting that Apple will sell around 13–14 million iPhones this year. The installed base of iPhone and iPod touch users is already around 10 million (possibly much higher, but it's hard to say), and will be well over 20 million by the end of the year. It's worth noting that these are worldwide numbers, and the DS and PSP numbers given in the article are for North America—but the majority of these iPhone and iPod touch sales are also in North America.

You can play around with sales numbers and projections all day, but the crux is this: by next Christmas, the installed base of devices running OS X iPhone will dwarf that of the DS and PSP. And yet these are not primarily gaming devices. They just so happen to be very capable at it. People are going to buy them on their non-gaming merits, and will just so happen to be carrying around a powerful gaming system in their pockets, everywhere they go. Without it ever being a significant goal, Apple is poised to become a major player in mobile gaming.