Apple and Nintendo Should Play Together

Hope the festive season has rewarded your hard labors this past year with lots of cool toys. In the Howard house, Santa left a Nintendo Wii, which was quite appreciated and ha nearly been worn out already. Well, it’s users have, says I flexing aching muscles.

I’ve waited nearly two years for a Wii since I first heard about it when it was still called - fittingly - a Revolution. There’s always a risk when you wait so long for something, you might suffer an anti-cliimax when you finally get it. Not so with the Wii. No disappointment at all. It is a remarkable and revolutionary device.

Apple and Nintendo share a lot in common with both liking white, both having an inclination to think different, both appealing to the average consumer and both up against powerful opponents.

One that Apple needs to both emulate and get in on the Wii action. Actually, emulating the reasons for its success will be near impossible, but still, there’s some food for thought when you look at the Wii.

The iPod revolutionized how - and where - we listen to music. But it has had one serious downside in that it has furthered the isolation of humans in the 21st Century. It cuts people off not just from each other, but from the world around them. We walk around, with earbuds wedged firmly in our ears, more disconnected from those around us than ever before.

The Wii though has the exact opposite effect. It brings people together and actively so. In the three days we’ve had it, our place has been almost in party mode, with not just people up and about having fun and getting some exercise using the Wii, but its the audience participation too. Cheering, barracking and so on.

I’ve watched my kids watching other kids’  on Playstations and Xboxes and it’s a very dull affair. Three or four drones hypnotized by the screen, mostly sitting silently.

Where the iPod is isolating, the Wii is unifying.

And it’s not just the kids. At our house, most adult visitors have willingly and wantingly had a go. I can’t ever remember seeing any adults in my age group wanting to play Playstations or Xboxes together as a group as we have with the four-player bowling and other multi-player games.

My older brother suggests that the Wii will be like Trivial Pursuit, with people of all ages having Wii parties. That wouldn’t surprise in the slightest.

Now, with all that popularity comes the second point. How can Apple get a piece of the action? Rather than trying to compete head-on, what alliances can Apple develop with Nintendo to take advantage of the Wii’s cross-community popularity?

One that immediately springs to mind is the Wii channels. Apple should try to get either an Apple channel on the Wii or get its online store onto the Wii’s shopping channel. Apple could and should also consider selling the Wii and its accessories through the online Apple store.

As I’ve said previously, the Wii’s popularity is going to mushroom as Mums/Moms discover their computer game loving kids don’t have to sit on the couch getting thumb exercise. For instance, in the three days we’ve had our Wii, we’ve sold three other families on it. And two of them already have games consoles.

Any alliance between Nintendo with its Wii’s and DSes, and Apple with its iPods and Macs, would be greatly beneficial to both parties.

Why though? Any way to broaden exposure is beneficial, and any alliance that creates an assumption, is doubly beneficial. Just as people assume that Windows PCs are the way to go in computers, if an Apple-Nintendo alliance can create the impression that that is the way to go for consumer entertainment, both parties benefit.