How many of you own a cell phone or have parents with cell phones that would let you use it frequently?

Furthermore, the Mobile Adaptor seems to require a central "datacenter" to host and coordinate the whole shebang, and I am unclear on how this is paid or funded. Meowth346's descriptions of how the system was supposed to work in Japan strongly suggest that the MA was not made to operate as a decentralized system.

So, between the low Japanese sales, the differing and complex US cell networks, and the apparent need to create and fund a US-based central datacenter, it seems that the MA never really had a chance here. An argument could be made that decoupling the Mobile Adaptor from the cell phone and just letting connect to a normal telephone jack would have allowed a US release of a "Sessile Adaptor"...but I don't think so. Nintendo seems to have been rushing to get Crystal out over here, and the amount of time it would have taken to reengineer the MA would have made a (relatively) early Crystal release impossible. And, of course, there would still have to be a central datacenter, which implies long-distance charges, unless the whole system was entirely moved to the Internet, which is pretty much beyond the scope of a Gameboy Color and its litle Z-80 chip. And anyway, sales levels would still be a problem--most pokemon fans are below the age of ten.

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Originally posted by OrientalNoodle:
I do.

Then again, if I remember correctly, Finland has the highest "mobile phones per person" -ratio... (Over 80% of people have a mobile phone )

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And I thought we were bad here in the states. I remember feeling like a freak for not having a cell phone (they have exploded in the college and post-college crowd).

Now, it still is possible, in theory. They could have it where IF a Mobile Adapter of some kind was released in America that it could add-on the unwritten mobile code, etc...

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Originally posted by Rolken:
And since ultimately they're out to make money, they really "blew it" when they released the Mobile Adapter to begin with.

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Nintendo usually isn't very good at money making. Take the GameCube for example. It costs Nintendo $350 or so to make one. Yet they'll have to retail it for $200 just to get sales. That's a $150 or more loss per unit and they are hoping to sell thousands of these things.

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Originally posted by DarkPersian:

Nintendo usually isn't very good at money making. Take the GameCube for example. It costs Nintendo $350 or so to make one. Yet they'll have to retail it for $200 just to get sales. That's a $150 or more loss per unit and they are hoping to sell thousands of these things.

Nintendo + Hardware = -$

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Ermmm, I think you're a little iffy the economics and the marketing here. Assuming your manufacturing costs are correct, it would still make a lot of sense for Nintendo to sell the first Cubes below cost. For starters, they plan to make the money back in profit on games, which is basically just software, with trivial manufacturing costs.

Second, the more Cubes that are sold, the less expensive it will be for Nintendo to make them, particularly as time goes on and the hardware is increasingly easier to procure.

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Originally posted by Thom Burr:

If they bumble the Cube, they have a good chance of going the way of Sega...All of which is why they should be trying to sell as many of those things at the lowest price they can possibly manage.

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Actually the "way of Sega" is not a bad idea for Nintendo. Sega is now focused purely on software for their former competitors. The result: the first corporate profit in years for the company! You're right on the fact that software is the money.