Nintendo has reported a profit of $2.43 billion for the last nine months of 2007. That’s almost double their profits from the previous year. Imagine what the profits might have looked like if they could just have produced enough of the Wii and DS.

The resurgence of Nintendo has been one of the best stories in gaming in years. Here was a company many thought would be out of the hardware industry entirely within a few years. They looked well on their way to being another Sega before the release of the DS. In fact, it was the DS itself that looked like it might send them there. While Sony was prepping its entertainment wunderkind PSP, the DS in comparison looked like a colossal misstep. It couldn’t play video, music, surf the Internet, and the entire system looked like a gimmick. Two screens? Touch capability? A microphone? Wait a second, is this the DS or a cell phone being described?

It may sound goofy, as the PSP has the gee whiz features that cell phone companies have been crowing about for years, but the DS outdid the cell phone manufacturers by a few years. Look at many modern cell phones, the iPhone included, and you will see a move to touch screens and even dual screens. Granted, such phones seem to have a more practical purpose for their second screen (usually hidden on the inside of so-called candy bar phones), but it is difficult to deny the similarities to the DS design.

So, if the DS had two of the trends down so early, the question becomes were they simply ahead of their time, or did they provoke the modern design change in cell phones? It would be difficult for anyone making a portable touch screen device to deny the importance of the DS. While Palm Pilots and Mobile Windows devices had featured touch screens for years before the DS, it was the DS that first brought the technology to the mainstream. Suddenly, it was shown that even grandma could use a touch screen device, and advances in hand writing recognition meant the DS was far easier to use than first generation Palm devices. Sure, it might have been simply for playing games, but nonetheless, the device was simple and straight forward. It even showed that the masses sort of got a kick out of pressing their screen, and with that the timing for the iPhone introduction was perfected.

What does all of this mean? Following up the success of the DS, Nintendo again bewildered critics with their instant smash the Wii. If technology companies again follow Nintendo’s lead that may mean more motion input devices. Such technology seems a little odd for cell phones, but then again, so did dual screens.

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2. The future of "touch" games
3. Nintendo seeks USA’s help in war on global piracy
4. Nintendo won’t release Holocaust game in the US
5. Nintendo throwing DS "Tupperware" parties for women

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