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Leveraging its extensive install base, Apple is pushing sales of video games on its Touch and iPhone products through its online App Store.

Many industry think this will change the portable gaming market:

“They’ve done a great job of providing not only a great piece of hardware, but also a great consumer shopping experience,” said Travis Boatman, a vice-president in Electronic Arts Inc.’s mobile division. “The DS and the PSP are excellent game machines, but … where [Apple's products] really shine is their strength in the digital distribution experience for consumers.”

“They’re targeting a new demographic, which is awesome,” said Andrew Ayre, chief executive officer of Other Ocean Group Inc., the Prince Edward Island game development studio that created Super Monkey Ball for the iPhone.

“From a development standpoint, it’s very easy and straightforward to develop for and certainly the graphics and the features such as the touch screen and the accelerometer are pretty unique,” he said.

However, one line in the article strikes me as particularly interesting:

Apple’s devices will prove to be a greater threat to the PSP than the DS, since Sony’s device is marketed as a multimedia product aimed at an older demographic it shares with the iPhone and iPod Touch.

I am not sure why the author thinks this.  People who buy PSPs do so for the near PlayStation 2 quality of graphics and sound for games.  Sure the device can play music and movies but very few buy it for this purpose.  Similarly, people who buy an iPod or iPhone do so for its music, video and communications capabilities first.  This is not to say people who have iPhones and iPod Touches will not buy games, but I doubt would be PSP owners will rush out instead to get an Apple device to play games. 

In my opinion, PSP gamers form a different tribe than Apple device gamers.