UPDATE: May 20th, 2009
Dan Frommer over at Silicon Alley Insider provides some perspective on Apple's chances of becoming a viable home entertainment force in his latest piece, "Microsoft Kicking Apple's Butt In The Living Room." And judging from Microsoft's announcement today that it plans on building in Netflix streaming into Windows Media Center, Frommer isn't too optimistic about Apple's chances.
"What can Apple do? We've heard secondhand (a few months ago) that Steve Jobs won't invest more in Apple TV hardware until its software is improved. That explains why Apple hasn't done much with Apple TV hardware since early 2008. But it doesn't explain why the company hasn't done much with the software since then."
With game consoles increasingly becoming all-in-one entertainment centers, it looks like Apple still has quite a bit of work ahead of itself before it could seriously consider jumping into the console market.
Frommer caps his piece with a zinger:
"Apple admits its home entertainment business is a 'hobby.' But right now, maybe 'joke' is a better word."
Yowza! Do check out the full story. It's a good read.
[from Silicon Alley Insider]
UPDATE: May 14th, 2009
In a blog post yesterday, Appy Place's Chris Ulm went further down the path of Apple console speculation. He believes that the Apple TV is a logical choice to morph into a console, and that Apple will be compelled to make the jump in order to protect iTunes from competitors.
"Suppose Apple continues to treat Apple TV as a 'hobby' and allows somebody else (say Microsoft) to occupy this space? This could put iTunes at risk, which would then start to reverse the momentum that Apple has spent so many long years building â€" jeopardizing their entire ecosystem including the iPod and iPhone franchises. Can Apple really build their strategy around 'Digital Lifestyle' and not have a strong presence in the living room? Can they own this space without home gaming?
Apple will make a serious play for the living room that will involve the App Store and the direct download of console-type games to an Apple TV- like device. It is not a matter of 'if,' but 'when,' and not an 'opportunity,' but an 'imperative.'"
It's an interesting read, as well as an excellent complement piece to Erik Sherman's report.
[from Appy Place]
BNET's Erik Sherman recently wrote an interesting piece on Apple's recent moves in and around the gaming business--and whether these portend a new game console from the House of Steve.
Sherman begins with the low-hanging fruit: the series of high-level executives Apple's recently added to the team.
The big name on this list games-wise is Richard Teversham, formerly Xbox's senior director of strategy. There are also some interesting names on the technology side, including the creator of the Nintendo Game Cube's CPU and top engineers from IBM and AMD.
Sherman also points to Apple's recent acquisition of GPU experts PA Semi, as well as its partial buy into UK graphics firm ImagInation, as evidence that the company is shoring up its portable graphics capabilities.
But for what purpose? This hiring and acquisitions pattern certainly suggests that something may be afoot at Apple, but much of this movement could just as easily be down to other, non-gaming initiatives.
However, when Sherman starts to list some of Apple's recent gaming and media patents, things get a little more interesting. For example, one patent covers interaction between a gaming environment and music (or other media)--in other words, a two-way street where a customer's gameplay could lead to changes in his or her musical profile, and vice-versa. We haven't seen that feature on the iPhone... yet.
To be fair, a lot of these patents are old news, and they seem to refer to stuff we've already seen on the App Store and iDevice. But even though we don't know whether Apple is working on a new console, the evidence continues to mount that the company has a new focus on games.
[from BNET Technology]
7 Comments
Few things:
- It's most likely that Teversham was recruited for bringing business acumen to the iPhone, not for a new unknown console that would take a lot of research and development, and probably something Apple is not interested in. It's positioned the iPod Touch as a games console in it's own right, why would they want to cripple sales with a different system that comes with it's own hurdles? After all, the platform as a whole is doing extraordinarily well right now.
- It's likely too that their GPU acquisition is going to result in new chips for iPhone (and Mac) hardware.
- Apple patents a lot of innovations and may not utilise them all. It's a way of covering their bases if they do those kinds of things. One example is a patent for a rotating camera mechanism, that clearly hasn't been incorporated into the iPhones to date. It could be later on.
- I'd bet that Apple, rather than go into the home console market again (they failed with the Pippin) will expand their iPhone/Touch platform with better hardware and obviously experience from major industry players. Developing a whole new console just does not make sense for them, especially as they have now over 30 million customers that they can sell apps to.
Very good points. But I bet they are also looking hard at some of the devices they already have (particularly the Apple TV) and wondering what else they can do with them.
The App Store model has worked so famously, and has garnered so much credibility with developers, that Apple would have to consider shifting what's worked over to a higher-margin platform.
I think the iPhone/iPod Touch are much higher margin than the Xbox or Playstation 3.
And probably similar to or better than the DS.
That's not to say some sort of game played with a cluster of iPhone/iPod Touches and an Apple TV on a giant display wouldn't be potentially fantastic. Some sort of strategy card game?
They are much higher margin, because there's no distribution cost... buuuuuut you need to move a ton of units to get anywhere. They're not (currently) worth anything.
Apple console games competing with XBox Live Arcade/WiiWare/PSN at the $5-$20 price point could build revenue much faster.
Steve, in all honesty I'd love to see Apple put out another games console. But it just does not seem like the kind of move that they would do right now.
They already have billions in the bank, with insane growth for the iPhone platform. I think even they underestimated the popularity of the iPhone.
Still, media shills will circulate rumours and then blame Apple when the product doesn't arrive.
Not that I think anyone at STP is a shill, far from it. I just wish you guys wouldn't post unsubstantiated rumours and speculation.
We'll see what comes to pass at WWDC, that's for certain.
Oh, I'm well aware it's speculation.
That's why I titled the post "Rumor Mill" and made it clear that we don't know what Apple's up to. :)
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