Bloomberg reports that investors in gaming giant Nintendo are calling for the company to counter weakness with some of its core products by targeting the booming smartphone games market. Nintendo has suffered following a poor launch for its Nintendo 3DS handheld console, which was at least partially attributed to the success of alternatives among casual gamers – particularly Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch. However, Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo, has said that the company will only offer games for its own products as long as he is in charge – although with stock prices falling, it is unclear how long investors will support this strategy.

Iwata has previously been critical of mobile games, arguing that in this market there is a focus on quantity over quality: “these platforms have no motivation to maintain the value of gaming,” he said. While Nintendo has attempted to build a downloadable games business, DSiWare, alongside its packaged apps line, this has not seen much success.

It was suggested that Nintendo could look to acquisitions in order to create a presence in the mobile apps market – Bloomberg said that the company has a cash pot of around US$10 billion. When Nintendo has denied reports it will move into games for Android and iOS, finance house MF Global FXA Securities said that “a management once feted for creative out-of-box thinking have just shown how behind the times they are.”