Apple has little to no understanding of the non-casual game market, and very little interest.
Do you guys pull those statements out of your asses?
I should modulate that statement somewhat.
WRT to Apple attempting to turn iTV into a gaming platform or somesuch: No. I speak from observation and experience, and an understanding what a colossal, challenging, and unimaginably expensive investment it is trying to compete in the mostly unprofitable and fierce console gaming market.
WRT to Apple introducing an iPod-based gaming platform that's open instead of controlled: more of a possibility, and an interesting one. But we're talking a bold move here, and a whole new model: the click-wheel or even touch-screen controls aren't going to cut it for non-casual games.
Kindly explain to me why I'm going to buy an portable game machine from Apple instead of a DS, which has hundreds of titles available already.
Steve Job's and Apple's stated goal as always is to build the media home around the Mac.
That means no gaming console. Steve has no interest in the gaming market beyond what currently exists for the Mac. Mac users aren't hard core gamers. Are they always trying to get more top of the line games to the Mac platform - of course they are. But the problem isn't the hardware, it never was. It's getting the gaming industry to make games for the Mac platform. Apple hasn't been successful in doing this for the Mac, so there is no way they would be successful in doing that for an Apple gaming console and they know it. Games for iPods will be a niche gaming market just like it is on cell phones - marginal revenue at best - and they won't spend any significant resources on that either.
iTV has one major purpose, to get the movies you buy on iTunes to your TV set as a display device for your Mac - no more, no less.
There will be no iPhone, Apple has no real interest there and the cell carriers will fight tooth and nail to defend their playground, leaving no network for Apple to piggyback on.
MacWorld will be a let down this year for all the hype - at most we'll get an update on Leopard and iTV, some minor Mac updates, and maybe the video iPod. Adobe will come out and say they are almost ready with CS3 and Steve will introduce some more movie and TV partners for new iTunes store content.
Maybe Apple could do something with the Mini... Put in a real graphics card and then use the four USB 2.0 ports (or Bluetooth) for controllers, at least for the casual gamer. Me? I don't play games much (say, once a month), but I have an obsession for the highest quality possible on my HD 1024p projector (There are better out there, but hey!) and JBL sound set-up (Maybe Klipschorns with mole amps soon), so despite the cool gyro in Nintendo, I think they missed out a LOT on video quality, I would definetly go PS3 if I get a gaming system. To solve the issue with people who like high quality but aren't hard core, maybe offer a software pac that lets the gaming stuff run natively on a computer, so if you have a Mac Pro tower with killer graphics cards then you could use it. Maybe even multiple gaming screens (can you say lan party with one 'console')?
I really would like to see Apple create a games division inhouse, kind of like what Microsoft did. You have to admit, Microsoft has released some really good games under their name.
I think it would be great for Apple if they had a few great games that were OSX only. "Buy a Mac. It plays these great OSX games. You can boot to Windows and play Halo 3, ect..."
I agree with hmurchison. Game consoles are much more than just game platforms. They can play HD-DVD/Blue Ray/DVDs/CD, connect to the internet for music and video downloads, show photo slideshows. Sony and MS are direct threats and competitors to Apple. While Apple may have the lead in some areas, they are definitely behind when it comes to games.
Also look at the price points. Apple computers can host games but they are way more expensive then game consoles. Apple has nothing to compete against the game consoles. As I consider buying a media center for my living room, an Xbox 360 or PS3 seem a much better option than a computer. Apples iTV is going head to head with these devices but doesn't do games - that we know of.
I wish Apple would introduce a compete living room media solution. This would include a HD flat panel tv with an integrated iSight camera, a 5.1 wireless speaker system, and a setbox that runs front row, plays games, multiplayer games over a LAN or internet, connects to iTunes, has a dock for an iPod, has an amplifier, connects to cable tv, does TiVi video record/timeshift, iChat A/V, airport hub, a big HD, and one integrated simple remote. With their stores, people could test drive the system and bring it home and set it up easily.
There are millions of people who want a good and simple system but cannot choose and configure a system themselves. They see all the wires and give up. And then there are all the remotes. They juggle five or six remotes and can't figure out how to record a tv show to their VCR like they use to. This is a huge market just waiting to be tapped.
Apple can deliver on all this today except for the games. Or MS and Sony could do their own solution and beat Apple in the living room. Apple has all the pieces but the games. MS and Sony have the games and some of the pieces. But it is not enough to do part of the solution. The first company with the complete integrated solution will dominate.
Right now gaming is a big hole in Apple's quest for living room dominance. They need to fix this hole fast and I think they could do it in a first generation system if it came as part of an integrated system.
I even wonder if Apple could add the games to this living room system by harnessing the processing power of a Mac. For example, one could have an iHome system in the living room and a Mac in the home office of den for example. The iHome system has all the above functionality but when it comes to games, uses the network connection to remote the gaming processing work to the Mac. Use Xgrid for gaming. Thus you have the power of the game console without the costs.
Apple could do this today and have an excellent gaming platform. Heck with boot camp, they could even run PC games from their iHome, or whatever they are going to call their iTV. Thus they come in with a great game solution without all the R&D costs. They then can keep the costs of their iTV/iHome/or whatever it is going to be called much lower.
Add in a smartphone iPhone that also taps into this home network system for VoIP and iChatA/V and intergrates for music, video playback. Add GPS and some PDA functions and you have total integration. Apple could also sell a simpler and cheaper iPhone without the extra functions.
Apple has all these pieces and can make this work. They can also innovate on their software side.
If they get iWork up to task and have it read/write MS Office files and sell it cheap for both PCs and MACs - like $39 - very few people would upgrade Office ever again. Then Apple needs to license their OS for cheap and people would choose that over Vista. MS would lose their major income streams. Combined with a living room system that plays games, MS would lose many Xbox sales. MS would be hurting. That would make news and drive MS shares down, driving many more lemmings to Apple. With so many PC users virus infected, they would gladly move to Apple. Apple could always keep a few goodies exclusive to their OS on their own branded systems. That way the PC world could not threaned their MAC hardware line.
Apple can do this and take over the computer and home electronics markets fast. They already have all the pieces and they already have the mindshare. They also have the stores and staff to help this process along. All they need is the TV set, iHome setbox, speaker system, and iPhone. Apple could easily have all these pieces in place and integrated come January for MacWorld.
Whether or not they do this remains to be seen. They could rock MS Vista's launch and even effect game console sales for both MS and Sony. If they do the plan I outlined, I see total Apple domination in a couple years.
Apple and nintendo should definetly team up. Let Nintendo do the hardware and apple do the interface, with some deisgn influence.
The next generation of the DS could be designed by apple and the interface could be apple based, They could even let it fall under the ipod brand.
The next generation of the wii could do away with the current interface and mix the wii channels idea with an apple esq interface. They could drop opera and use safari. And make certain Virtual Console games downloadable to the ipod and ipod DS.
Drop the itv's price evenutally to $199 and make the next generation apple-nintendo wii (whatever they wanna call it) priced at $299 with a harddrive (by this time it would obviously be HD graphics), and both can download from itunes, and stream back and forth from computers that way gamers that have no need for an itv would still use apple's store and movie model. A people who don't game would use itv. Because how I see it is xbox's thing and great and everything but all the people who would never buy an xbox for a media center because they'd never play a game (because face, it makes no sense to use it for only a media center) have no alternative besides a media center pc. The itv would be an affordable way of bridging that gap and the console version would help by adding dvd functionality or whatever next-gen dvd format wins, hopefully eliminating the need for a separate player, after all it uses a remote already.
It would be sick to have a nice clean tv setup consisting of an hdtv, a recievier, apple-nintendo wii thing and speakers - that's all. Not one with all kinds of messy shit like I currently have going on.
I can think of so many ways that an apple and nintendo union could be incredible.
If Apple is going to sell games, they're going to do something like this.
You download the games with your iTV and use the remote control to play them, if you have a video iPod you can send them to the player and play them on the road too.
The games will be very basic, and will cost $10 at the very max.
Maybe so but as previously noted, Xbox is still in its infancy, its still a second generation product. Microsoft is in this battle for the longterm and as demonstrated earlier, is now making a small profit on the console. This is a HUGE achievement in the context of video game consoles and a pretty big improvement over the 1st gen xbox.
The Playstation 1 has sold over 100 million units. It his that mark while the original Xbox was on the market. The Playstation 2 hit 111 million units sold while the Xbox 360 is on the market.
The Xbox has only sold about a tenth of the Playstation numbers over the same length of time. Infancy doesn't account for that.
That article on the Xbox costing MS 4 billion is from a year ago. Which means it predates the Xbox 360 really. We all knew MS was taking a bath then.
Today you have a different story.
Xbox 360 as a Media Centre Extender.
Xbox 360 as a Console
Xbox Live Gold with $6 movie rentals
Xbox 360 + HD DVD add on for movies.
Microsoft is going to make money. Can Apple duplicate their efforts? I think Jobs is smart enough to get to where the Xbox 360 is today without the severity of bloodshed.
In regards to everyone who thinks the iPod will be the next gaming device, people are forgetting what made the iPod so popular to begin with, it's mass appeal. Everyone from preteens to seniors have them and if they don't, they most likely want one.
If Apple morphed the iPod into a gaming device that can also do music and movies, Apple will lose costumers.
The reason the iPod is so popular is because it has gotten to the point where Apple allows the user to decide what they want on it; movies/tv/video podcasts, music, games, contacts, calendar; notes.
That article on the Xbox costing MS 4 billion is from a year ago. Which means it predates the Xbox 360 really. We all knew MS was taking a bath then.
Today you have a different story.
Xbox 360 as a Media Centre Extender.
Xbox 360 as a Console
Xbox Live Gold with $6 movie rentals
Xbox 360 + HD DVD add on for movies.
Microsoft is going to make money. Can Apple duplicate their efforts? I think Jobs is smart enough to get to where the Xbox 360 is today without the severity of bloodshed.
MediaCenter is a convoluted failure which hasn't gained much traction
As a console its numbers are still weak, only a fraction of Playstation sales.
Xbox Live - is the most compelling part but how long will "pay to play" last? Could Apple offer online gaming for free to drive adoption?
Movie Rentals - I prefer movie rentals over purchases so MS wins this one.
HD DVD - most consumers will not buy one. Blu-ray will do better and iTunes digital downloads will be the most popular.
2. Aquire a large gaming company with great upcoming game.
3. Develop a console that plays games, downloads movies, streams video/photos
4. License the hell out of the platform.
Microsoft has created a winner in just 3 generations of Xbox consoles. Apple can cut that down to 2 generations if they just follow the pattern of success and avoid the pitfalls.
Bring on the iGame Console!
Where is that third generation? Unless you're saying that the 2nd, the 360, will continue to bleed monry.
In regards to everyone who thinks the iPod will be the next gaming device, people are forgetting what made the iPod so popular to begin with, it's mass appeal. Everyone from preteens to seniors have them and if they don't, they most likely want one.
If Apple morphed the iPod into a gaming device that can also do music and movies, Apple will lose costumers.
The reason the iPod is so popular is because it has gotten to the point where Apple allows the user to decide what they want on it; movies/tv/video podcasts, music, games, contacts, calendar; notes.
I don't think anyone is suggesting that the ipod will become primarily a gaming device.
It is already a gaming device.
Its not a primary function but it is there.
With a larger screen and better graphics chips it is natural that some consumers are also going to want bigger better games as well.
Most People will still use the iPod for Music
Many will watch TV Shows and Movies
Some will use it to play games.
A few will use it as a mirror for checking their makeup.
I'm not so sure about your evaluation of the xBox. A few years ago, Jobs dismissed rumors that Apple was developing a PDA, saying that, "the PDA market is not a happy place to be." I'd argue that the game console market, today, is also not a happy place to be. MS's xBox units is still hemorrhaging money out the ass, and Sony looks to lose quite a bit on the PS3 for at least the next year or year and a half. Nintendo seems to be doing alright for the time being, but for how long? There's no guarantee that people won't get tired of the Wii -- that the novelty might wear off.
The only reason why MS is in the game console market is because they have a carte blanche thanks to all of the money that comes in from the desktop monopoly they enjoy. They will try to dominate any new markets that they can, but it hasn't been easy with xBox. Nothing that they have done has really gotten them any closer to turning a profit, much less dominating the industry.
If Apple is said to be working towards their advancement in the gaming market, you can be almost certain that this is little more than a push to try and get better game support to the mac desktop, rather than some grand plan to enter the console market. Now that they use x86's and EFI, it's presumably much easier to leverage existing hardware products, and it undoubtedly reduces the amount of snafu bugs that show up (and have to be debugged) due to the difference in PPC and x86 architectures.
The only way I can see Apple doing it is to simply have it to extend their current, or future, product line.
An iPod is an expensive game machine. But when bought for other purposes, that comes for free. With some of the patents they have now, I can see some new switch functions being built into new generations that will aid game play. Same thing for their phones.
Some think that will complicate the machines, but I don't think so. It's just another menu item. Nothing else changes.
That article on the Xbox costing MS 4 billion is from a year ago. Which means it predates the Xbox 360 really. We all knew MS was taking a bath then.
Today you have a different story.
Balance-sheet wise, not really. Xbox dug MS a 4 billion dollar hole. Even if they are (finally) making a small profit now, it will take them several years to fill in the 4 billion dollar hole.
Maybe by the time the 3rd generation Xbox comes out, they'll finally be out of the hole.
Clearly some of you are working with assumptions or old info. Add in Xbox live Gold subs and Microsoft is making money folks.
The manufacturing costs should be no more than half the selling price for a profit to be possible for the manufacturer. Manufacturing costs does not include the other costs involved in running the company, a percentage of which the games division must share. And don't forget the hundreds of millions in R&D it cost to get the 360 to the point of manufacture, as well as the hundreds of millions that MS said they are spending to promote the product.
All the article shows is that MS is not losing as much as they did earlier this year.
Supposing for the moment that Apple reached into the gaming market couldnt they use the iTV as their console and just wirelessly stream their games to TVs using 802.11n or maybe even a better protocol depending on how much it would require. This way the price for the console is decent. The games can be purchased via iTunes. played via wireless controllers (blue tooth?). If im speaking out of my ass here then ignore me but most importantly PLEASE dont call it the iGame or ANYTHING along those lines!!! For as long as I know everyone has always joked about that being apples console and no one likes the name. its a bad idea.
WRT to Apple attempting to turn iTV into a gaming platform or somesuch: No. I speak from observation and experience, and an understanding what a colossal, challenging, and unimaginably expensive investment it is trying to compete in the mostly unprofitable and fierce console gaming market.
WRT to Apple introducing an iPod-based gaming platform that's open instead of controlled: more of a possibility, and an interesting one. But we're talking a bold move here, and a whole new model: the click-wheel or even touch-screen controls aren't going to cut it for non-casual games.
Kindly explain to me why I'm going to buy an portable game machine from Apple instead of a DS, which has hundreds of titles available already.
Yoy wouldn't have to if you already were planning to buy an iPod, as long as it's not the Shuffle.
Comments
Apple has little to no understanding of the non-casual game market, and very little interest.
Do you guys pull those statements out of your asses?
I should modulate that statement somewhat.
WRT to Apple attempting to turn iTV into a gaming platform or somesuch: No. I speak from observation and experience, and an understanding what a colossal, challenging, and unimaginably expensive investment it is trying to compete in the mostly unprofitable and fierce console gaming market.
WRT to Apple introducing an iPod-based gaming platform that's open instead of controlled: more of a possibility, and an interesting one. But we're talking a bold move here, and a whole new model: the click-wheel or even touch-screen controls aren't going to cut it for non-casual games.
Kindly explain to me why I'm going to buy an portable game machine from Apple instead of a DS, which has hundreds of titles available already.
That means no gaming console. Steve has no interest in the gaming market beyond what currently exists for the Mac. Mac users aren't hard core gamers. Are they always trying to get more top of the line games to the Mac platform - of course they are. But the problem isn't the hardware, it never was. It's getting the gaming industry to make games for the Mac platform. Apple hasn't been successful in doing this for the Mac, so there is no way they would be successful in doing that for an Apple gaming console and they know it. Games for iPods will be a niche gaming market just like it is on cell phones - marginal revenue at best - and they won't spend any significant resources on that either.
iTV has one major purpose, to get the movies you buy on iTunes to your TV set as a display device for your Mac - no more, no less.
There will be no iPhone, Apple has no real interest there and the cell carriers will fight tooth and nail to defend their playground, leaving no network for Apple to piggyback on.
MacWorld will be a let down this year for all the hype - at most we'll get an update on Leopard and iTV, some minor Mac updates, and maybe the video iPod. Adobe will come out and say they are almost ready with CS3 and Steve will introduce some more movie and TV partners for new iTunes store content.
I think it would be great for Apple if they had a few great games that were OSX only. "Buy a Mac. It plays these great OSX games. You can boot to Windows and play Halo 3, ect..."
Also look at the price points. Apple computers can host games but they are way more expensive then game consoles. Apple has nothing to compete against the game consoles. As I consider buying a media center for my living room, an Xbox 360 or PS3 seem a much better option than a computer. Apples iTV is going head to head with these devices but doesn't do games - that we know of.
I wish Apple would introduce a compete living room media solution. This would include a HD flat panel tv with an integrated iSight camera, a 5.1 wireless speaker system, and a setbox that runs front row, plays games, multiplayer games over a LAN or internet, connects to iTunes, has a dock for an iPod, has an amplifier, connects to cable tv, does TiVi video record/timeshift, iChat A/V, airport hub, a big HD, and one integrated simple remote. With their stores, people could test drive the system and bring it home and set it up easily.
There are millions of people who want a good and simple system but cannot choose and configure a system themselves. They see all the wires and give up. And then there are all the remotes. They juggle five or six remotes and can't figure out how to record a tv show to their VCR like they use to. This is a huge market just waiting to be tapped.
Apple can deliver on all this today except for the games. Or MS and Sony could do their own solution and beat Apple in the living room. Apple has all the pieces but the games. MS and Sony have the games and some of the pieces. But it is not enough to do part of the solution. The first company with the complete integrated solution will dominate.
Right now gaming is a big hole in Apple's quest for living room dominance. They need to fix this hole fast and I think they could do it in a first generation system if it came as part of an integrated system.
I even wonder if Apple could add the games to this living room system by harnessing the processing power of a Mac. For example, one could have an iHome system in the living room and a Mac in the home office of den for example. The iHome system has all the above functionality but when it comes to games, uses the network connection to remote the gaming processing work to the Mac. Use Xgrid for gaming. Thus you have the power of the game console without the costs.
Apple could do this today and have an excellent gaming platform. Heck with boot camp, they could even run PC games from their iHome, or whatever they are going to call their iTV. Thus they come in with a great game solution without all the R&D costs. They then can keep the costs of their iTV/iHome/or whatever it is going to be called much lower.
Add in a smartphone iPhone that also taps into this home network system for VoIP and iChatA/V and intergrates for music, video playback. Add GPS and some PDA functions and you have total integration. Apple could also sell a simpler and cheaper iPhone without the extra functions.
Apple has all these pieces and can make this work. They can also innovate on their software side.
If they get iWork up to task and have it read/write MS Office files and sell it cheap for both PCs and MACs - like $39 - very few people would upgrade Office ever again. Then Apple needs to license their OS for cheap and people would choose that over Vista. MS would lose their major income streams. Combined with a living room system that plays games, MS would lose many Xbox sales. MS would be hurting. That would make news and drive MS shares down, driving many more lemmings to Apple. With so many PC users virus infected, they would gladly move to Apple. Apple could always keep a few goodies exclusive to their OS on their own branded systems. That way the PC world could not threaned their MAC hardware line.
Apple can do this and take over the computer and home electronics markets fast. They already have all the pieces and they already have the mindshare. They also have the stores and staff to help this process along. All they need is the TV set, iHome setbox, speaker system, and iPhone. Apple could easily have all these pieces in place and integrated come January for MacWorld.
Whether or not they do this remains to be seen. They could rock MS Vista's launch and even effect game console sales for both MS and Sony. If they do the plan I outlined, I see total Apple domination in a couple years.
The next generation of the DS could be designed by apple and the interface could be apple based, They could even let it fall under the ipod brand.
The next generation of the wii could do away with the current interface and mix the wii channels idea with an apple esq interface. They could drop opera and use safari. And make certain Virtual Console games downloadable to the ipod and ipod DS.
Drop the itv's price evenutally to $199 and make the next generation apple-nintendo wii (whatever they wanna call it) priced at $299 with a harddrive (by this time it would obviously be HD graphics), and both can download from itunes, and stream back and forth from computers that way gamers that have no need for an itv would still use apple's store and movie model. A people who don't game would use itv. Because how I see it is xbox's thing and great and everything but all the people who would never buy an xbox for a media center because they'd never play a game (because face, it makes no sense to use it for only a media center) have no alternative besides a media center pc. The itv would be an affordable way of bridging that gap and the console version would help by adding dvd functionality or whatever next-gen dvd format wins, hopefully eliminating the need for a separate player, after all it uses a remote already.
It would be sick to have a nice clean tv setup consisting of an hdtv, a recievier, apple-nintendo wii thing and speakers - that's all. Not one with all kinds of messy shit like I currently have going on.
I can think of so many ways that an apple and nintendo union could be incredible.
Now this is what I was thinking!
If Apple is going to sell games, they're going to do something like this.
You download the games with your iTV and use the remote control to play them, if you have a video iPod you can send them to the player and play them on the road too.
The games will be very basic, and will cost $10 at the very max.
I agree
Maybe so but as previously noted, Xbox is still in its infancy, its still a second generation product. Microsoft is in this battle for the longterm and as demonstrated earlier, is now making a small profit on the console. This is a HUGE achievement in the context of video game consoles and a pretty big improvement over the 1st gen xbox.
The Playstation 1 has sold over 100 million units. It his that mark while the original Xbox was on the market. The Playstation 2 hit 111 million units sold while the Xbox 360 is on the market.
The Xbox has only sold about a tenth of the Playstation numbers over the same length of time. Infancy doesn't account for that.
Today you have a different story.
Xbox 360 as a Media Centre Extender.
Xbox 360 as a Console
Xbox Live Gold with $6 movie rentals
Xbox 360 + HD DVD add on for movies.
Microsoft is going to make money. Can Apple duplicate their efforts? I think Jobs is smart enough to get to where the Xbox 360 is today without the severity of bloodshed.
Kindly explain to me why I'm going to buy an portable game machine from Apple instead of a DS, which has hundreds of titles available already.
Plan on buying an iPod in the next few years?
Welcome to the platform.
If Apple morphed the iPod into a gaming device that can also do music and movies, Apple will lose costumers.
The reason the iPod is so popular is because it has gotten to the point where Apple allows the user to decide what they want on it; movies/tv/video podcasts, music, games, contacts, calendar; notes.
That article on the Xbox costing MS 4 billion is from a year ago. Which means it predates the Xbox 360 really. We all knew MS was taking a bath then.
Today you have a different story.
Xbox 360 as a Media Centre Extender.
Xbox 360 as a Console
Xbox Live Gold with $6 movie rentals
Xbox 360 + HD DVD add on for movies.
Microsoft is going to make money. Can Apple duplicate their efforts? I think Jobs is smart enough to get to where the Xbox 360 is today without the severity of bloodshed.
MediaCenter is a convoluted failure which hasn't gained much traction
As a console its numbers are still weak, only a fraction of Playstation sales.
Xbox Live - is the most compelling part but how long will "pay to play" last? Could Apple offer online gaming for free to drive adoption?
Movie Rentals - I prefer movie rentals over purchases so MS wins this one.
HD DVD - most consumers will not buy one. Blu-ray will do better and iTunes digital downloads will be the most popular.
Not a chance. Apple has little to no understanding of the non-casual game market, and very little interest.
Any hiring of game developers is almost certainly about more small, casual games for the iPod / iPhone.
Which is a good thing, for sure, but it has almost nothing to do with the upcoming clash between Sony, MS, and Nintendo.
Good call. I, too was thinking along your lines.
Getting into gaming is fairly easy.
1. Develop a powerful gaming API for OSX
2. Aquire a large gaming company with great upcoming game.
3. Develop a console that plays games, downloads movies, streams video/photos
4. License the hell out of the platform.
Microsoft has created a winner in just 3 generations of Xbox consoles. Apple can cut that down to 2 generations if they just follow the pattern of success and avoid the pitfalls.
Bring on the iGame Console!
Where is that third generation? Unless you're saying that the 2nd, the 360, will continue to bleed monry.
In regards to everyone who thinks the iPod will be the next gaming device, people are forgetting what made the iPod so popular to begin with, it's mass appeal. Everyone from preteens to seniors have them and if they don't, they most likely want one.
If Apple morphed the iPod into a gaming device that can also do music and movies, Apple will lose costumers.
The reason the iPod is so popular is because it has gotten to the point where Apple allows the user to decide what they want on it; movies/tv/video podcasts, music, games, contacts, calendar; notes.
I don't think anyone is suggesting that the ipod will become primarily a gaming device.
It is already a gaming device.
Its not a primary function but it is there.
With a larger screen and better graphics chips it is natural that some consumers are also going to want bigger better games as well.
Most People will still use the iPod for Music
Many will watch TV Shows and Movies
Some will use it to play games.
A few will use it as a mirror for checking their makeup.
I'm not so sure about your evaluation of the xBox. A few years ago, Jobs dismissed rumors that Apple was developing a PDA, saying that, "the PDA market is not a happy place to be." I'd argue that the game console market, today, is also not a happy place to be. MS's xBox units is still hemorrhaging money out the ass, and Sony looks to lose quite a bit on the PS3 for at least the next year or year and a half. Nintendo seems to be doing alright for the time being, but for how long? There's no guarantee that people won't get tired of the Wii -- that the novelty might wear off.
The only reason why MS is in the game console market is because they have a carte blanche thanks to all of the money that comes in from the desktop monopoly they enjoy. They will try to dominate any new markets that they can, but it hasn't been easy with xBox. Nothing that they have done has really gotten them any closer to turning a profit, much less dominating the industry.
If Apple is said to be working towards their advancement in the gaming market, you can be almost certain that this is little more than a push to try and get better game support to the mac desktop, rather than some grand plan to enter the console market. Now that they use x86's and EFI, it's presumably much easier to leverage existing hardware products, and it undoubtedly reduces the amount of snafu bugs that show up (and have to be debugged) due to the difference in PPC and x86 architectures.
The only way I can see Apple doing it is to simply have it to extend their current, or future, product line.
An iPod is an expensive game machine. But when bought for other purposes, that comes for free. With some of the patents they have now, I can see some new switch functions being built into new generations that will aid game play. Same thing for their phones.
Some think that will complicate the machines, but I don't think so. It's just another menu item. Nothing else changes.
That article on the Xbox costing MS 4 billion is from a year ago. Which means it predates the Xbox 360 really. We all knew MS was taking a bath then.
Today you have a different story.
Balance-sheet wise, not really. Xbox dug MS a 4 billion dollar hole. Even if they are (finally) making a small profit now, it will take them several years to fill in the 4 billion dollar hole.
Maybe by the time the 3rd generation Xbox comes out, they'll finally be out of the hole.
.
I don't know where you got this information.
http://www.neoseeker.com/news/story/6312/
Xbox 360 cost reduced by as much as %40
Clearly some of you are working with assumptions or old info. Add in Xbox live Gold subs and Microsoft is making money folks.
The manufacturing costs should be no more than half the selling price for a profit to be possible for the manufacturer. Manufacturing costs does not include the other costs involved in running the company, a percentage of which the games division must share. And don't forget the hundreds of millions in R&D it cost to get the 360 to the point of manufacture, as well as the hundreds of millions that MS said they are spending to promote the product.
All the article shows is that MS is not losing as much as they did earlier this year.
I should modulate that statement somewhat.
WRT to Apple attempting to turn iTV into a gaming platform or somesuch: No. I speak from observation and experience, and an understanding what a colossal, challenging, and unimaginably expensive investment it is trying to compete in the mostly unprofitable and fierce console gaming market.
WRT to Apple introducing an iPod-based gaming platform that's open instead of controlled: more of a possibility, and an interesting one. But we're talking a bold move here, and a whole new model: the click-wheel or even touch-screen controls aren't going to cut it for non-casual games.
Kindly explain to me why I'm going to buy an portable game machine from Apple instead of a DS, which has hundreds of titles available already.
Yoy wouldn't have to if you already were planning to buy an iPod, as long as it's not the Shuffle.