Nintendo vice-president Reggie Fils-Aime recently wrote in a column for Brandweek that his company drew on Apple's success with the iPod as it prepared the DS handheld and the forthcoming Revolution console. Writing for GamesIndustry.biz, Rob Fahey explained that Mr. Fils-Aime views both companies have introduced "disruptive" products: "devices which interrupt the standard progression of escalating technology by being more low-tech than their competitors, but innovating in terms of usability, pricing and broad appeal."

Mr. Fahey explained further: "The iPod has often been criticised on the entirely true grounds that it is less powerful, boasts less functionality and supports less music formats than rival products from other companies, but that's not the point of the product." In contrast, he wrote, the DS "is vastly underpowered compared to the PSP, and the Revolution will boast a basic specification which will be dwarfed by both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3."

However, both companies assume "that mass market consumers won't care," looking instead at how the products reliably and simply perform their given tasks. Because of that, Mr. Fahey said that "in a peculiar way, Apple is almost an honourary player in the console wars - without actually having a console itself, the company deservedly shares mindspace, and poses a serious threat to, those who would use videogame systems as the back door into dominance of the home media market."