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BNet details a pretty sound argument that Apple is cooking up something new, and recent rumors of an EA purchase help fuel the idea that the something new is at least some kind of a gaming console. Check out TUAW's take on it as well.
Something to factor in here: Gaming has been enormously profitable on the iPhone/iPod Touch - for Apple, big companies like EA and even some indie developers. Super Monkey Ball, a high visibility launch title, was a quick financial success for Sega.
Tan readers will remember we have discussed this before, although much of my argument was more on the basis that the Mac Mini could be a living room front for Apple (that was before the AppleTV was launched).
Many of the arguments remain the same, however. Nintendo more or less rules the living room right now and Sony and Microsoft are slugging it out like the juggernauts they are. As when it was rumored Sega would re-enter the hardware market, it is a very tight space to fit into.
At the same time, I don't think many people would have thought the iPhone to be such a DS competitor when it launched either. BNet's findings swarm around the combination of media and games. Apple has loved media for some time now, and now they also have a healthy appetite for games as well.
Also, it's been mumbled for some time that the Mac Mini was never a favorite of Steve Jobs and it exists mostly to fulfill the need for a low-end market. If Apple releases a netbook, that would also replace that need. Don't get me wrong, I love my Mac Mini to death - but if there's any truth to this rumor, I wouldn't expect the Mini, the AppleTV and a console to all share the same shelf space.
Let's remember - Apple is sneaky. They fight the battles they want to fight and it doesn't seem very Apple-like to replicate the Xbox strategy and take the gaming industry head on. Apple is very, very good at leveraging their existing assets. Looking it at that way, the path of least resistance is probably the AppleTV itself (which might, hopefully, spare the Mini). Apple will want a device which accesses iTunes for media, as the AppleTV does now - but potentially can also get games in the same style of the App Store.
It's a pretty short path. Add some decent GPU hardware to the AppleTV, design a controller that meets Apple standards, and open a new category to the App Store. AppleTV gaming - in your living room. They wouldn't necessarily being going after Nintendo's turf ... they can rely on the Cult of Mac to get things started.
It's not a huge risk for Apple. It adds a new platform for developers to sell games on, and hence another stream of App Store based revenue. If Apple bought EA, they would be insured a flock of quality first party titles. Even if they didn't, they already have good relationships with studios from the iPhone.
The case is looking pretty strong. This could be a very interesting E3.
Personally I think the App Store is only just shy of completely brilliant. One of those times that philosophy that drives Apple really shines and pulls together something which quite honestly changes the conversation as well as the game.
But I did say just shy. There's some pretty glaring faults to be had here. Nothing which is odd or surprising considering what's going on - but they still exist. There's no good way to deliver trial software - which has lead several developers to start distributing "lite" and "full" versions of their software to accommodate. Juggling the apps I've downloaded from my phone, from iTunes, kept, deleted, etc. onto the phone itself is a bit of a mess and I keep forgetting to update the sync settings prior to actually syncing.
The other half of the App Store problems involve, well, the apps themselves. The now much blogged $999 "I Am Rich" app is probably the epitome of the controversy - but much of this is also due to a much inflated sense of what Apple would allow and disallow from the store in general. And much of that was a complete lack of messaging on Apple's part on what they would allow and disallow. It was, and probably pretty much is, roughly designed as "what we want". Some people took that to mean that if you didn't follow Apple's much touted design concepts, you wouldn't get through the door.
Honestly I was always skeptical of that and somewhat expected to be ... well, pretty much what it is. There's been a lot of comments about Apple allowing an app like "I Am Rich" onto the store as well as for Apple removing such an app. My suspicion was always that Apple would be more like a bouncer than a fashionista at a party - it's in Apple best interests to have the widest range of apps on the store and a high volume. They pretty much can't lose here, a lot of free apps mean that there is more incentive for people to own an iPhone and a lot of pay apps means more to their bottom line.
The key phrase there being - a lot of apps in general.
The real problem, I think, goes back to the concept of trialware. The real problem is that there isn't a decent mechanism for determining what's truly crap and what is not. Something like "I Am Rich" is probably pretty easy to discern for most rational people but I could see where Apple might pull it just to avoid dealing with an angry customer. "I Am Rich" is really a non-issue, a humorous footnote in what will be the history of the App Store, but the real problem for Apple would be a glut of $9.99 and $19.99 apps which completely suck. If people pay up front for apps that don't pay off, they'll be less likely to try them out in the future.
Which defeats the whole "have a lot of apps" angle in the first place.
There is literally a storm pulling out of the Chicagoland area - which fits my general mood perfectly. Yesterday was a blitz of information regarding all things iPhone as everyone at work ramped up to full speed on support Expense2GO. It was crazy - we had thought nothing would really happen until morning broke over in Pacific Time ... but soon enough blogs were full of information about how to not only find the App Store in general, but download the 2.0 firmware update as well.
Apple has now apparently released the official version of the firmware and so we're off to the races. My morning will be poking at a few known bugs and small enhancements.
For the record, my hotlist of iPhone apps are currently:
AIM
No brainer
Pandora
The Girl was quite envious when she saw the Music Genome powered radio stations playing off our stereo system.
Advent
OK, honestly a really clumsy way to play the classic text game Adventure - but I give it points for geek cred. Course if you really want geek cred, I guess the lightsaber emulator is a good way to go...
This is my "free" hotlist. Haven't had time to poke at the non-free apps. It is weird to see how the pricing jumps from app to app, however. I swear there are a few out there which are little more than rebranded Apple samples selling for a couple bucks a pop. I've also downloaded the Facebook app, haven't tried it yet - but nobody really needs me to pimp that.
We're going to be heading to Door County for the weekend. I would love to spend time working on my own iPhone project - but we'll see if the brain is functioning to that capacity. If you're going to be in the greater Chicagoland area, I recommend our original plans: The Windy City Rollers, our original plan for Saturday until lured by the concept of a fine country outing.
Apple's App Store for iTunes is open, although if you haven't had access to the beta OS I don't think you'll be able to do much with it just yet. The app we at work have been pounding is called Expense2GO. It's a receipt manager for Salesforce.com users which allows you to organize receipts by report, take pictures and upload them to your org.
We're looking for people interested in continuing to test the app if you should actually be reading this and fall into the above category.
There is an extremely healthy number of apps launching with a decent amount of diversity. I'm not sure if a platform launch has been quite as successful at mobilizing a developer base before. Just the list of free apps is fairly impressive ( thanks Kottke ).
In a few hours I would expect the 2.0 OS to be available and after that you should be able to download apps and give them a whirl. For those of us already on the latest beta of the iPhone OS, it seems to work OK.
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