—Lack of developer support: N-Gage’s biggest problem was that developers didn’t like working with the platform. They called the N-Gage app development process a “time-consuming and expensive endeavor”—partly because they had to create different versions of games for Nokia’s myriad handsets, but also because of the complex approval process. Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) too, has a bad rep when it comes to getting apps approved, but developers seem to actually like creating games for the iPhone. With N-Gage, that wasn’t the case.

—iPhone competition: And then, there’s the consumer appeal of the iPhone and the App Store. Access to games and apps was integrated into the iPhone from the start; in contrast, it took Nokia a year to start selling a high volume of handsets with N-Gage pre-installed. iPhone games also launched with cool features like motion-control from the onset; N-Gage games only started making real use of handsets’ accelerometers this year. It also didn’t help that the same games often cost much less on the iPhone than N-Gage.

Moving forward, Nokia will be able to devote more resources to gaining developer support and traction for the Ovi Store. In July, the company closed its Vancouver-based in-house N-Gage development studio, and a Seattle-based content-development shop in May. We’ve put in a request for details on whether there will be more layoffs tied to the full N-Gage shutdown.