The most obvious problem facing developers is that the iPhone hardware was not originally designed as a gaming device, a fact that brings Super Monkey Ball’s problems sharply into focus. Monkey Ball’s irritations are almost entirely down to its controls – with an interface created for the touchscreen PDA market, the iPhone has no buttons, D-pads or sticks. This means that, no matter how good your tilt control is, you’re missing a crucial piece of haptic feedback from the start.

“The fact is that motion and touch control are no replacement for a D-pad or analogue joystick,” admits Paul Farley, the managing director of Tag Games, an established mobile platforms developer. “Games that have been designed for those traditional input methods do not always translate well to these less accurate methods of control. A number of games feature onscreen buttons or pads, and unfortunately this rather inelegant solution seems to be the best approach. The most important element that this solution lacks is the tactile physicality of depressing a button and feeling it move. You simply don’t have that with a flat screen, and as such knowing when you’ve pressed and when you haven’t causes big problems.”

In return, the range of quirky inputs the iPhone does possess may ultimately be red herrings for developers. “Like any new input system, it’s going to take a while for the controls to mature as people develop a standard language of interaction with the device,” suggests Simon Oliver of Handcircus, a micro-studio that is soon to release its first game, the colorful platformer Rolando. “There’s a lot of experimentation at the moment, with wildly different control schemes being created, but I imagine in a year or so we’ll start to see more games using standardized controls.”

Control is far from the only hardware issue developers have to deal with. Unlike most handheld gaming consoles, graphics capabilities weren’t necessarily the first concern when Apple designed its hardware, and the results are the subtle performance problems pointed out by Trism creator Steve Demeter, who claims that its 3D rendering capability lacks finesse, making it more difficult to use than PSP’s or DS’s.

Then there’s the notoriously short battery life, not built for long gaming sessions, which will be a key factor in shaping the kind of titles that get made. “We’re very much coming at iPhone from a mobile gaming perspective, so our games are designed to be ten- to 20-minute snacks,” says Farley. “Therefore battery life is unlikely to be an issue for us. There has to be a compromise when cramming so much into such a small device and in this case the battery is probably the weakest element. That said, many other high-end phones have the same problem.”