Apple enhances gaming capabilities for iPhone and iPod Touch

(tmcnet) -- We're about to find out how serious Apple is about gaming.

On Monday, Apple is expected to unveil the next generation iPhone and, along with that, a virtual store from which iPhone and iPod Touch owners can download new programs, including games.

The potential of the iPhone and iPod Touch as portable game consoles stirred a writer from Forbes magazine to suggest this week that Nintendo's reign over the handheld market with the DS is over.

The DS has a touch screen, but the iPhone and Touch will have a touch screen and motion sensitivity, like a DS and Wii blended into a single, delicious cocktail.

Checkmate, Nintendo DS.

While I'm sure Apple executives enjoy reading those kinds of worshipful predictions, that doesn't necessarily mean they'll come true.

A big part of Nintendo's success (in fact, perhaps the single reason Nintendo is still in the game business) is the immense popularity of the company's internally created franchises.

Mario, Metroid, Zelda and Pokemon are all superstar franchises that no other console has.

Apple will have to develop its own exclusive roster from scratch.

That's not impossible, but it will, at least, take several years and a lot of money.

Apple does have a big opportunity here, though, and the quality and quantity of the first batch of downloadable games announced Monday will go a long way in telling whether gamers are getting a legitimate handheld or just a new way to play the same old, crummy cellphone games.