There is quite a few popular apps from Nintendo in the mobile market, but is that enough to sway The Big N on making their own gaming handset?
According to a DigiTimes report, Nintendo are reportedly considering jumping into the mobile gaming market with their very own handset. If this is true they will be going up against the likes of Razer, Xiaomi Vivo and some other companies, but is this a good idea considering the Nintendo Switch only released two years ago? The DigiTimes report says that "There have been speculations about Nintendo planning to launch a gaming handset that can integrate with its Switch consoles", and that "the Japan-based vendor has yet to respond to such speculations".
So judging from the source, there is next to no evidence that Nintendo are planning on doing this, just speculation and a lack of response from Nintendo. Lets play with idea before dismissing it though - how realistic is it that Nintendo will join the gaming phone market? Well, with the launch of the Switch, Nintendo are using mobile devices as a means of communication, rankings and some other additional features for online players. Is this app and the five other Nintendo apps worth making their own handset? Probably not. Considering that the global demand for gaming phones is around the 100,000 units per year margin, Nintendo most likely doesn't consider this a vital market to be jumping into.
If I was take a guess at what Nintendo have in-store for us hardware wise, I would say that a refresh of the Nintendo Switch is more likely than a gaming phone. I would love to see Nintendo set a minimum bar of 1080p, 60FPS with the Nintendo Switch 2.0, that would be truly impressive and also be a massive step in the hand-held gaming market.