Clearly, the sweet spot for iPhone/iPod touch are casual gamers, and everyone at some point of the day/week/month has a casual moment for which gaming is the antidote.

Plus, specifically because gaming is just one of the tasks that consumers use their iPhone/iPod touch for, the device is never far from their clutches – and their (virtual) pocketbook (thanks to App Store).

I see this truth play out several times a day, EVERY DAY, when my three and six year old sons ask if they can use my iPod touch to…play games, listen to music, view our photo albums, watch YouTube videos, use their favorite drawing program, etc.

It's the classic low-end disruptor (Innovator's Dilemma-speak), something that I blogged about in:

Apple’s Mobile Gaming Gold Rush
http://thenetworkgarden.com/weblog/2008/11/apples-mobile-g.html

My only point is that for hard core gamers this is apples and oranges relative to dedicated platforms, but that has no bearing on the realness of the market. On some level, the back and forth sounds like mainframers to PC owners (it's underpowered, a toy, not a real computer, don't want it/don't need it/won't use it). I think that we know how that one turned out.

In any event, check out the post if interested.

Mark