Will a Nintendo 3DS phone be a cheap videophone?

Nintendo is always highly secretive about forthcoming new hardware and gaming tech. The Mario factory ranks alongside Apple in terms of the precautions taken to ensure its latest tech developments are kept strictly behind closed doors.

Many games journalists routinely moan about what may, at times, seem to be an extremely clandestine way of organising and promoting a consumer technology business, yet the strategy clearly paid off well with the last two major console launches from Kyoto.

Both the Nintendo DS's touchscreen and the Wii's motion control being prime examples of 'distruptive' technology, each successfully shaking up the gaming market.

What 'else' will the 3DS do?

Hence the secrecy (and strict confidentiality of the 'non disclosure agreements' signed by selected developers and editors) surrounding the new glasses-free 3DS console due to arrive in UK stores at some point next 'spring' – around late March/Easter time, we currently hope. An official announcement regarding the exact details of the launch should arrive soon after Christmas.

Yet while the Japanese gaming giant has already officially announced 73 games for the forthcoming auto-stereoscopic handheld, there is little concrete information in the public domain about what else we might be able to do with this 3D-camera-toting affordable piece of consumer technology.

Will it work as an affordable 3D camera, for example? Or, more excitingly for many, might it even work as a rudimentary video-calling device?

Could Nintendo market the new 3DS as, effectively, a cheap 'Skype box' for those that cannot afford to get tied-in to the expensive Apple Facetime gadget otherwise known as the iPhone 4?

Nintendo rattled by Apple

One thing is for sure. Nintendo is certainly rattled by Apple's rapid and successful move into the handheld gaming market with the iPhone.

The hardcore may have scoffed for the last year or two at the standard of gaming on the iPhone 3G and 3GS (and previous iterations of Apple's smartphone), yet any gamer worth his or her salt that has upgraded to an iPhone 4 cannot deny that Apple is clearly now taking gaming seriously. (Just check out id Software's sublime Rage HD if you still need convincing).

So despite its continued dominance in the handheld gaming market, Nintendo's defiant silence about the spec of its new handheld and about which component manufacturers it is working with on the 3DS leads many gamers and industry analysts and observers to speculate about other new non-gaming features that might wow that huge casual gaming market that has previously already bought into Wii and/or DS.

Online news obsessives and rumour-mongerers in the games media have already published what purports to be the glasses-free 3D handheld's tech specs earlier this autumn. Yet while those details may have come from a pretty reliable source (IGN) there is still no official word from Nintendo, with reps consistently (almost reliably) "refusing to comment on rumour or speculation."

Still, for what it's worth right now, IGN alleges that the Nintendo 3DS has not one, but two 266MHz ARM11 CPUs, with a 133MHz GPU, 4MBs of dedicated VRAM, 64MBs of RAM, and 1.5GBs of flash storage.

This was perhaps most interesting to tech industry watchers because most consumers will know the ARM 11 range of mobile processors due to their use in Apple's iPhones and the latest Android smartphones. (An ARM11 processor also powers the the Zune HD).

The unsung hero of the 3DS

The 3DS' GPU is reportedly said to be DMP's PICA200, with a maximum processing speed of around 200MHz, with the handheld also said to feature 1.5GB of flash memory, which can also be expanded using the 3DS' SD card slot. Yet it is the dual-camera function that has most tech and gaming industry observers really excited.

"The 3D, dual-camera function of 3DS is one of its real unsung heroes. It's a technology that already exists, but by placing it into a device whose price and marketing will scream 'accessible', Nintendo will no doubt bring this to an audience who would otherwise not have stumbled across it," says Tim Ingham, editor of CVG

Ingham continues: "The 3DS takes two images and allows you to 'merge' them into one 3D image via its sliding button. Would that be technically capable for video? I can't see why the principle couldn't carry over into moving imagery.

"However, it would represent the first time Nintendo had ever put video capability into one of its handheld devices – so would represent a 'double jump' forward for the firm."

One interesting bit of news to consider is the fact that the new Pokemen game, Pokemon Black and White – for many, Nintendo's definitive handheld franchise – will contain video chat.

Clearly this will be closely controlled and monitored, as Nintendo has always been keen to maintain its sheen of family-friendly fun and reliability. And, so far, this new video function in the latest Pokemon title is limited to Japan and (weirdly) only works on local area networks (where surely you can see your companions and opponents?!).

But it still begs the question, if video chat can be done in the new Pokemon game, why can it not be done as a standalone feature for 3DS users to enjoy outside of playing a first party Nintendo game?

And, by extension, if the technical capability is there to allow 3D video chat to happen, yet Nintendo restricts it, might we see a new homebrew/hacking scene making the best out of Nintendo's new 3D camera device?

These questions, and many many others regarding the games and functions and capabilities of the new 3DS, will no doubt be answered over the coming months as we approach the UK launch next spring.