Nintendo is often derided for being a ‘toy’ company - as opposed to, say, Apple which is a ‘real’ hardware company.

Yet look at the big N’s track record of innovative hardware and software integration: Wii motion controls, Switch’s Joy-Cons and (soon) the cardboard Toy-Cons, N64 rumble pack for haptic feedback, battery backup in NES and SNES cartridges, etc.

(And yeah, lots of misfires along the way like the Wii U, Power Glove, Virtual Boy, etc).

A massive advantage of being a ‘toy’ company is what I would call the Pixar effect: products work for kids and adults alike.

Lego is also worthy of a look, but made a major strategic error IMHO by not purchasing Minecraft and letting Microsoft snap it up.

hat tip to Google Cardboard, of course.

or maybe that was a success, given its marketing impact post ‘The Wizard’ :)

// edited a few spelling mistakes and added the gCardboard ref and Lego appendum