Nintendo investors have revealed for the first time that the company should consider porting its legendary Mario franchise and other top in-house titles to smartphones like the Apple iPhone

The Japanese gaming giant has previously resisted calls to take its crown jewel gaming franchises outside of the company's own consoles, but the explosion in smartphone gaming and the recent 3DS sales flop has the money men thinking otherwise.

Fund Manager Masamitsu Ohki told Bloomberg that bringing marquee titles like Mario would be a great way for Nintendo to capitalise on that burgeoning market, in difficult times for the company.

"Smartphones are the new battlefield for the gaming industry," he said. "Nintendo should try to either buy its way into this platform or develop something totally new."

Massive profitability at companies like Rovio, Zynga and PopCap with titles like Angry Birds, Farmville and Plants vs Zombies look to be changing the outlook over at Nintendo HQ.

The company has Mario's former foe (before they hooked up to go to the Olympics) Sonic enjoy a rebirth of sorts on the iPhone so it wouldn't necessarily be a surprise to see Mario Kart on the iPhone before too long.

Link: TechRadar, Bloomberg