ArsTechnica spent a bit of time quizzing developers at this year’s Game Developers Conference about their plans for Nintendo’s hardware update, the DSi.

Quite a few iPhone stalwarts appear to be more than a little interested in the console’s direct download service, presumably due to its similarity to the App Store.

“Our focus, for now at least, is really on the iPhone,” said Ngmoco’s Neil Young. “The competitive landscape is just really, really different. It would be more difficult. I think the DSi is an interesting machine, and I wouldn't rule anything out down the line”

Young, of course, left EA to set up his iPhone-focused development studio, and it seems his old company is just as interested as he is, though Mike Pagano keeps his powder dry on what, if anything, EA Mobile has in the works for DSiWare.

“Everyone wants into this stuff,” he begins, optimistically. “We don't think [the DS, PSP and iPhone] compete with each other right now, and probably not in the future. We look at everything.”

Mobile giant Gameloft, however, has already begun work on bringing an adaptation of its iPhone sorts game Real Sports Soccer to DSiWare, accompanied by a new title aimed at female gamers, involve the life management of a rock star.

“On the DS, there are some publishers that have been successful outside of Nintendo,” says Gameloft’s Gonzague de Vallois regarding competition with Nintendo on its own platform. “You have to know that there is some area that Nintendo is going to cover, especially with their own IP, and it's going to be hard to compete with these IPs. I don't want to compete with these key assets.”

Clearly iPhone developers can see the potential to cross over into the DSiWare market, though all are rightly cautious about Nintendo’s strength as a first party publisher.