The iPhone
This was about to change. On June 29, 2007 Apple released the iPhone device. This device was far ahead of all its competitors at the time. The iPhone device supported multitouch, capacitive screens which allowed more accuracy, and new types of gestures that hadn't been seen before, such as pinching a screen to zoom in or out. Apple's attention to user experience was evident throughout the device. Scrolling and animations were executed with a fluidity not previously seen in a cell phone. Shortly after, the iPod Touch device was released. It used the same operating system and had the recognisability of the already ubiquitous iPod name. Like the PlayStation before it, there was suddenly a very popular device with only one hardware configuration. Developers were very quick to try and find a way to create software for the device. Apple, responding to developers while hesitant to open up their platform to third parties, provided documentation and help on how to build HTML 5 apps for their device. These apps, as Apple called them, couldn't offer a full range of functionality as they were unable to access much of the hardware on the iPhone.
Things went on that way for a year but Apple had been working in the background. They had created a new phone, the iPhone 3G phone, and a new version of the iPhone OS to run on it. There were multiple new features, but most revolutionary was the App Store feature. Released on June 10, 2008, the App Store feature promised a store front for everyone's apps, all on an equal footing. Apple would handle all the financial transactions and the file hosting, and take a 30 percent cut. This is now what most app stores offer but the amount given to a developer prior to this was considerably less.
While the phones were quite powerful, a user's expectations of what a handheld game was hadn't been defined yet. If you were upgrading from Snake then these were absolute power houses, but as they were handheld devices no one expected Grand Theft Auto on them. It meant that developers were free to experiment with all types of games. It enabled bedroom development again. One developer with a computer and an iPhone was able to create a game to their specification and could have it on sale alongside titles from Sega, EA, Square Enix and other large, professional game companies.
