Apple on iPhone - 'It's not a phone, it's a console experience...'

Apple isn't letting up on its campaign to pitch iPhone (and iPod Touch) as genuine rivals to DS and PSP, judging by comments made by its director of technology evangelism late last week.

According to Engadget, Apple's John Geleynse made the bullish statement about iPhone that "it's not a phone, it's a console experience".

He also referred to iPhone specifically as a "game console" during the event. By now, you'll have surely seen Apple's latest iPod touch TV ad, which features mostly games.

We've expressed concerns before about iPhone going head-to-head with DS and PSP, especially as it could sideline the kind of casual mobile experiences on iPhone that those devices don't deliver.

Still, the flipside is that Apple pushing iPhone gaming so heavily is good news for developers, who are hoping for a lucrative post-Christmas bump when new iPhone and iPod touch owners (hopefully) flock to the App Store.