Former founder of Electronic Arts Trip Hawkins thinks that Apple's popular iPhone platform "is freaking out Sony and Nintendo" according to an interview running over on VentureBeat.

Hawkins' new mobile game company, Digital Chocolate, has apparently launched iPhone games since December of last year, and was quoted as saying that the iPhone "for us was a spectacularly pleasant surprise."
It's by far our most effective platform. We make as much money with these games on one device as we do putting a game on 100 different cell phone platforms. Between the iPod Touch and the iPhone, I think the platform is freaking out Sony and Nintendo. Apple has sold 30 million units so far and it has created tremendous awareness.
Hawkins admits to feeling excited about the upcoming iPhone 3.0 update which he believes is a step in the right direction in regards to adding in a microtransaction model for the platform.

Are we to believe that Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft are quaking in their boots?



Bryn says: I'm sure that the likes of Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft are keeping relatively close tabs on what Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch platforms are doing, but Hawkins' comments are coming from a cell phone gaming perspective and not a core videogaming perspective.

30 million Apple units may have been sold, but you'll never find me playing Modern Warfare 2 on a portable device. End of story.