No, Apple and Nintendo aren’t merging, but their profits for the fiscal year are quite literally blowing investors’ minds. Seriously, I think there have been a few exploding head fatalities on Wall Street. Truly, the human brain can only handle so much profit forecasting.
Apple posted 88% profits this week, while Nintendo is sitting pretty with “a group net profit of 174.29 billion yen ($1.47 billion) in the year through March, up dramatically from 98.38 billion yen a year earlier (via the AP).”
These two companies stories over the past five years are similar for more reasons than just the color choice of their hardware (white); they’re also similar because of their business practices. Both companies have products that are arguably inferior to similar products out in the market, yet in their simplicity they have found a niche among the serious and fun loving alike. They have SHOWN consumers how they fulfill this need, rather than TELLING them they need to buy in.
Thinking differently has paid off for Apple in spades — we can only begin to imagine how it might (or might not, I’ll concede for a few months longer) pay off for Nintendo.