Posts Tagged ‘Apple’

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Apple TV iOS 4.3 beta to get the gaming touch?

Monday, March 21st, 2011

For quite a long time now, the missing link in Apple’s consumer driven chain has been gaming. Sure, they’re one of the largest distributors of games, but only in a mobile setting. That’s not to say that Apple hasn’t been keenly watching what’s going on in today’s market, and although mobile OS’s might now outweigh stationary, the success of competitor Microsoft’s Xbox, Xbox Live in particular, is undeniable.

To this end, sources close to Engadget are indicating that a few lines of code in the upcoming iOS 4.3 release (scheduled for Valentine’s day) point towards a gaming initiative coming out of Cupertino. But Apple’s already into gaming (of sorts) with GameCenter right? Correct you would be, however, as noted above – mobile. These lines of “ATVGamesScheduleController” are specific to Apple TV. If you’ve been following Apple’s progression; iTunes Store, App Store, and now…, it would make perfect sense for this anonymous tipster to be spot on. Given the Apple TV’s base storage capacity, 8GB, Apple will clearly have to look to a streaming solution, not unlike that of OnLive or Gaikai, both of which have been gaining significant steam over the past year. The same tipster reports that the OpenGl is, “ mature and thoroughly implemented enough that streaming low bandwidth data and computing locally could happen, but that’s just theoretical with nothing in the code to back it up.”

With all this said, what’s important to keep in mind is the processing power of the Apple TV, basically on par with the iPhone 4 and current generation iPad. In other words, Apple’s not going to hold up against an Xbox, but that’s not exactly the point. Again, the Apple progression, iTunes->App Store, it’s easy to see that Apple is clearly banking on the low-processor, casual, pick-it-up-play-a-few, and move on gaming fan. Not to mention, the similarities between all the iOS devices would mean cross platform development would be relatively pain free. This accomplishes two goals; Developers would then have an even larger marketplace to sell to, and Apple…has an even larger audience to sell to. A win/win.

In addition to the (possible) gaming features in the new iOS, Engadget points out codenames Sedona and Flagstaff. These codenames are most probably related to video merchandising and streaming, Sedona calls director, episode, season, etc. data, while Flagstaff still remains a mystery. In addition to a host of other code land goodies, Engadget’s tipster reports a feature_remote_screensavers element that suggests remote screensaver calls from any other device (read Mac) on your network.

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ComScore: Android closing in on iPhone

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

Leading metrics firm ComScore has recently published it’s MobileLens report, with Google’s Android OS making a strong showing across the board. The report, which covers August – the end of October found that Google, read:Android based devices now account for 23.5 percent of the U.S. smartphone marketshare.

Looking at the numbers in terms of OS, it appears as though RIM’s BlackBerry is still leading the pack, commanding a 35.8 percent marketshare, with Apple and Google now fighting tooth and nail for the number two spot. At the end of October, 2010, Apple held 24.6 percent of the market, while Google, 23.5 percent.

What’s also important to keep in mind with these numbers is, not only are they now 2 months old, but the growth rate. As referenced above, in July Google held a 17 percent marketshare, while 3 months later that share had jumped to 23.5 percent, a 6.5 percent gain. At the same time, Apple had only increased it’s share by 0.8 percent. If this trend remains on track, it’s very likely that Google might already have a lead on Apple at the time of this publication. Also noteworthy; during the same time, RIM’s marketshare dropped a significant 3.5 percent. Doing a bit of cocktail napkin math, it’s entirely possible that Google may now be nipping at the heals of RIM’s once commanding lead.

While this seems happy happy joy joy for Google, it’s not the best news for games and apps developers. A lack of a single, unified hardware specification means that each and every device has it’s own unique set of “can do’s” and “can’t do’s”. Why would this matter? Other than the obvious set of unique challenges various forms of hardware present, according to ComScore, gaming is also becoming increasingly important to smartphone owners. While up only 1.4 percent, 22.3 in July to 23.7 percent in October, gaming on smartphones has overtaken music listening usage, and is closing in on the social networking category, with less than a percentage point between the two.

It’s also important to keep in mind, as pointed out by Kyle Orland of Gamasutra, the ComScore survey did not take into account iPod Touch devices, which, while not mobile phones, will do just about everything else an iPhone will do (and iPad for that matter – although it’s size format does significantly disqualify it from this survey).

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Apple backpedals, lifts Flash Ban on Apps

Friday, September 10th, 2010

In what’s sure to be one of the biggest backpedaling events of the year, Apple is quietly reversing it’s previous position on allowing Flash in the creation of iOS apps. And surely, this is great, and long awaited, news for iOS developers. Apple is lifting the ban, but not without a few stern warnings. They’ve stated that “as long as the resulting apps do not download any code,” they’re permitted to play in the same sandbox with all other apps.

ios4In the official statement from Apple, they state, “We are continually trying to make the App Store even better. We have listened to our developers and taken much of their feedback to heart. Based on their input, today we are making some important changes to our iOS Developer Program license in sections 3.3.1, 3.3.2 and 3.3.9 to relax some restrictions we put in place earlier this year.”

However…if you think you’ve just opened the magic box of all Flashiness across your iPhone/Pad/Pod, etc., not so much. The struggle with third party development tools in iOS development has been a long time running, and Mr. Jobs even made a fairly decent case of why Flash wasn’t welcome on an iDevice. But with a number of small filesized games relying on either Flash or Unity, it looks like Apple has realized the merits of allowing third party development tools into the crowd, as a number of developers have been clamoring to develop for iDevices, but were limited by Apple’s effective tying of the hands to their own development kit. Notably, developers who are using third party tools will not see these tools used in the final product. Applications developed using these tools will be converted to an iDevice friendly format once they’re done.

According to Apple, “…as long as the resulting apps do not download any code. This should give developers the flexibility they want, while preserving the security we need.”

With justifiable security concerns, Apple has chosen to go with open standards such as HTML5, Java, and CSS. Flash maker Adobe contested that Apple was effectively creating a “closed system” that was edging in on a monopoly. The Federal Trade Commission was reportedly investigating the issue as late as May of this year, and Apple declined comment on whether this “relaxing of restrictions” had anything to do with the Commissions’ findings.

Oh…and as an added bonus? Apple is, for the first time, publishing its App Store Review guidelines. Say goodbye to guess work.

“We hope it will make us more transparent and help our developers create even more successful apps for the App Store,” reads the Apple Statement.

My only question in this entire saga: Why has it taken this long? Thank you Apple! And Google for being competitive. And RIM for very much the same. Now let’s all play nice, and may the best devi

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Q3 sees record results for Apple

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

Announced earlier this week, Apple reported their financial results for Q3 2010. In total, the company saw a record $15.7 billion in revenue, resulting in a net quarterly profit of $3.25 billion. When viewed from a YoY perspective, these numbers compare to $9.72 billion, with a net quarterly profit of $1.83 billion.

apple_moneyBreaking it down by products sold, Apple’s numbers look like so:

  • 3.47 million Macs were sold in Q3 2010 – this is a new quarterly record for Apple, and a 33 percent YoY increase
  • 8.4 million iPhones moved out the door in Q3 – a massive 61 percent increase in Year over Year growth.
  • 9.4 million iPods also found new homes – an 8 percent decline, however, remember that each iPhone sold includes iPod functionality inside.
  • 3.27 million iPads left the Apple warehouses – while the company only began offering the device to selected markets late in Q3.

Apple also notes that over half of corporate revenues arriving from international sales, clearly indicating that it’s not just The United States inhabitants that love Apple.

“It was a phenomenal quarter that exceeded our expectations all around, including the most successful product launch in Apple’s history with iPhone 4,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iPad is off to a terrific start, more people are buying Macs than ever before, and we have amazing new products still to come this year.”

“We’re really pleased to have generated over $4 billion of cash during the quarter,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the fourth fiscal quarter of 2010, we expect revenue of about $18 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $3.44″

The Apple Q3 financial results call can be listened to here, and will remain online for the next two weeks.

If there was any question about Apple’s dominance in today’s computing world, these Q3 results should quell any ney-sayers. And while Apple’s news alone is quite outstanding, I personally would love to know what percentage of these record breaking results arrived via Apple’s cut of all app, and their associated downloadable content, sales. With 21.07 million devices capable of app installations (assuming the iPods are all of the Touch variety), not only is that in itself a massive chunk of cash, but thanks to the longevity of the potential revenue streams derived from all app store purchases, these Q3 numbers are, in fact, much larger than they appear.

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iPhone 4 just shy of 2 million sales in 3 days

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

In it’s first three days alone, Apple’s new ‘must have’ iPhone 4 sold 1.7 million units. Doing the math, that’s 394 iPhones sold per minute, or 6.5 iPhone sold per second, if you like. This can only be seen as yet another ‘WIN!’ for Apple, and the armies of iPhone app developers that stand behind the new device.

iphone_4.0“This is the most successful product launch in Apple’s history,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO.

Looking at Apple’s previous iPhone history, in 2008 the first iPhone 3G moved approximately 1 million units in it’s first weekend of sales. Not too shabby. One year later, with their iPhone 3GS, Apple did it again, repeating the previous years’ sales numbers. Apple’s much larger sibling that doesn’t make phone calls, aka the iPad, which launched in April of this year sold 3 million units in it’s first three months.

Featuring a number of “Ooo! Do Want!” features including the new Retina display, a 5 megapixel camers with LED flash, the A4 processor, a 3 axis gyro, 40 percent longer talk time, oh – and just for good measure, a 720p HD video recorder built in, the iPhone 4 is the hot ticket this summer. All of these features, and lest we forget the FaceTime video phone calling feature is packaged inside a revolutionary glass and steel case (that according to Steve Jobs, we’re all holding incorrectly).

And while all these new features are great, what do they mean to the games development industry? Surely, someone’s got to be working on some fanciness in regards to the FaceTime uses, but for now, popular iPhone games maker ngmoco is focusing on the 3 axis gyro. They recently released Eliminate: GunRange specifically designed for the iPhone 4 and taking advantage of pitch, roll, and yaw. Let’s be clear, the new 3 axis gyro is in addition to the accelerometer and previous left right axis previous generations of iPhone have had, thus making the new handheld gaming phone, a 6 axis controller.

With over 40,000 games available in the Apple Store, making it the largest category, just slightly ahead of books, developers of said titles will probably be resting just a little bit better at night now.

Not available in Europe until a projected end of July date, the iPhone 4 retails in the US for $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32 GB.

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GamersFirst to release first Mac free-to-play

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

As an owner of an OSX based system, I’ve gotten pretty used to boot camp and playing PC based titles in this fashion. And while everything works (more or less) just the way that it should, there’s always that nagging feeling of – I bought a mac because I don’t like windows, why oh why can’t I play this title on my beloved OS? Well it seems as though games publishers are starting to come around to the ‘other’ side of the table. Mac gamers undoubtedly are tapping into Steam’s offerings, and others are beginning to follow suit.

taikodomGamersFirst announced that they’re making their first Mac title available: Taikodom: Living Universe. Developed by Brazilian studio Hoplon Infotainment, Taikodom is a real time space action MMO set in the 23rd century. A free-to-play EVE perhaps? GamersFirst promises to serve up jaw dropping graphics as players determine the fate of humanity in an RPG style progression space fighter.

Taikodom was originally developed for the PC platform (boo), and GamersFirst will provide the beta client sometime this year.

“The Mac platform has been in Hoplon’s plans for a while now, so we are very excited continue working with GamersFirst and offer Taikodom on Mac,” states Tarquinio Teles, CEO, Hoplon. “We want to offer options to GamersFirst’s diverse Free2Play community and presenting Taikodom across multiple platforms will expand beyond GamersFirst’s existing player base and further expand our relationship.”

While GamersFirst isn’t the very first free-to-play title available for Mac, it does look to be one of the most promising thus far. If it’s anywhere close to what EVE delivers, and at a fraction of the cost (before a shopping spree in the in-game store), I’m all for it. The more titles that OSX users have in hand now, only means that the industry as a whole will have to start taking the mac platform seriously. That is, if Apple themselves don’t beat the others to the punch.

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FarmVille: coming to an iPhone near you soon

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

If for no other reason, you’ve certainly got to hand it to Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Introducing the new iPhone yesterday with an opening line, “You may have already seen this.” True to form, Zynga prez Mark Pincus wasted no time, and struck while the proverbial iron was hot. White hot in fact.

Announced in conjunction with the new iPhone presentation, Pincus announced that everyone’s (depending on how you look at it) favorite Facebook casual game, FarmVille is headed to an iPhone near you soon. According to Zynga, the FarmVille app will sync your iPhone farm with your Facebook farm via Facebook Connect, effectively eliminating withered crops. In Pincus’ own words, “Say goodbye to withering crops, we now have push notifications.”

The iPhone version of FarmVille comes with all the usual suspects; push notifications, and in-app transactions for virtual goods. The app is slated for an end-June release, which will coincide with FarmVille’s one year anniversary. To commemorate the iPhone app launch, Zynga will be offering exclusive iPhone items, including a Snow Leopard, a tip of the hat to Apple’s current OS.

Interestingly, this time one year prior, Pincus had described iPhone’s monetization opportunities as, “below expectations.” However, and to his credit, he was speaking to revenue opportunities prior to OS3, which brought microtransactions to applications.

I can not say that I’m surprised by the announcement. Sources close to Zynga, as well as some eagle-eyed domain registrants have been fueling the iPhone rumor since late April of this year. The only surprising thing about the Zynga/FarmVille/iPhone announcement is the timing. As in, Zynga is one of the most powerful and lucrative players in the social gaming scene – what took them so long to get the product to market? These guys are clearly not a two man show developing games in their garage; they’re a money making powerhouse based in one of the most tech friendly/huge talent pool areas in the world. A year to dev an iPhone app? Kinda fail guys.

With similar ‘Farming’ apps already out on the market (I’m looking at you Social City and We Rule), what could Zynga have to offer that’s new? On the other side of the coin, there are 70+ million people around the globe the regularly play FarmVille. The question is, how many of them are iPhone owners, and how many more players can Zynga pull in with the new app? Or…is the FarmVille app simply a ‘get it out the door’ project that could serve as the basis for future Zynga apps? FrontierVille anyone?

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Zynga poised to release iPhone, iPad, and Android versions of FarmVille

Monday, April 26th, 2010

Spotted by the eagle-eyed folks at Superannuation, the URL’s FarmVilleiPad.com, FarmVilleiPhone.com, and FarmVilleAndroid.com have recently been snatched up. Three guesses as to who the registrant it.

FarmVille_iPadFair enough, trick question, as Zynga was not specifically named as the registrants of these domains, Superannuation did confirm that whomever purchased the above mentioned URL’s also registered FarmVille.com. Connecting the dots between the two isn’t that far of a leap. Also of interest, FarmVilleSMS.com was also registered, further implicating Zynga, as one of their few mobile gaming apps, Mafia Wars, also functions and can be played via SMS.

There’ve been no leaks in the way of screenshots or other media (the above image is merely speculation), so at this point it’s up in the air as to what the interface and gameplay will look like. Given the wide and rising popularity of ngmoco’s ‘We Rule’, a free-to-play strategy/farming game for iPhone, again, not a giant leap to guess that Zynga would approach the gameplay in a similar manner.

This mobile version of FarmVille would be Zynga’s entry to the iPad and Android market. While the above mentioned ngmoco, by contrast, has been heavily invested and committed to the iPhone mobile gaming platform, Zynga has has their own reservations. Just shy of one year prior, Zynga head honcho Mark Pincus commented to PocketGamer.biz, “…the jury’s still out on how well the platform is going to monetize.” This was pre-OS 3.0/microtransactions, and it looks like someone is obviously changing their tune.

And although FarmVille has enjoyed massive success on Facebook, it should be interesting if they can light the same fire on mobile gaming devices. 9 month ago, I would have said, “Baby, Light my Fire.” However, given Zynga’s proverbial dragging of the feet to get into the game, they’re already a step behind what other games developers have been working on for quite some time now.

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Apple iPhone OS 4 – Game Changer?

Monday, April 12th, 2010

Last Thursday, Apple capitalized on the buzz surrounding their newest device, the iPad, with an announcement of a “coming soon” OS 4.0 for the companies’ popular iPhone device. The iPad runs on a modified version of this operating system. While the word on the street was all about the multitasking, the lesser discussed inclusion in the 4.0 OS is Apple’s Game Center.

The Game Center is Apple’s introduction of a social gaming network that will reside within the mobile device. In other words, think about the social (and associated purchasing options) features that consoles such as the Xbox 360 and PS3 offer, but all on the go. The Game Center will allow for friend invites, a number of multiplayer game options, as well as leaderboards and matchmaking features.

While Apple has previously stated that they’re serious about games, particularly in regard to the iPhone, this is Cupertino’s first rock solid “above and beyond” feature that definitively backs this statement up. Clearly, this is Apple’s attempt not only to bring gamers together, and presumably push more product, but also to cut in on the action that Facebook has been enjoying for quite some time now.

While the details in Thursday’s announcement were vague at best (possibly contributing to the lack of buzz), the beta release of the OS is slated to include a preview of the Game Center for developers, and include a set of APIs, thus allowing devs to start taking advantage of the newest features offered.

And since the iPad is already running a very similar OS, it’s not a far leap to assume that iPad owners’ behaviors and usage patterns would be similar to iPhone users’. Low and behold, a look at some initial demographics back this theory up. Clearly Games are dominating both of Apple’s portable devices. Now throw some social matching making and friend connections in there, and the avalanche of dollars is poised and ready.
ipadstatistics_april10

And now for the bad.

In theory, Apple’s Game Center is amazing, and should open up hundreds, if not thousands of new opportunities for not only games developers, but developers of all apps. That is, however, if you’re welling to write them all in C/C++/Objective-C. This tiny little snipped, aka clause 3.3.1, has already sparked a debate, with points and counterpoints coming from Jobs himself.

The problem herein, is that a vast majority of today’s games run on a third party engine. And while Apple says that they want to get into the game of games, already limiting the ways and means of getting into the club is a bit counter productive. Yes, developers will bend to Apple’s mighty ways, as they are the keeper of the proverbial castle, but it does show a bit of their obtuseness and arrogance, especially when trying to cater to a crowd that’s traditionally been PC or none-at-all based.

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Charging for online content – who’s willing to pay for what?

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

A new study conducted by Nielsen has revealed that consumers will definitely “maybe” pay for online news and entertainment content that they now receive for free. However, the majority of respondents (85 percent) indicated that they’d rather the currently free content stay that way. Interestingly, survey respondents were far more willing to pay for certain services, while others don’t seem to be worthy of breaking out the credit card for, especially if they’ve previously done so. The study is in depth, as Nielsen surveyed over 27,000 consumers across 52 countries.

The big winners in the “will maybe pay for” category include theatrical movies, music, games, and professionally produced video (i.e. television). The current print industry buzz around microtransactions in online magazines and newspapers fell into the middle of the pack, an improvement over a Forrester Research report in November found that 80 percent of U.S. consumers would not bother to access online newspaper or magazine sites if they were no longer free. Rounding out the pack were amateur productions including podcasts, consumer generated video and blogs. Interestingly, social communities (i.e. social networks) scored just above podcasts and below Radio. A dichotomy unresolved, as the gaming activity on these social communities is clearly generating large amounts of revenue, that some are obviously interested in paying for.

paid-content-type

Some statistics from Nielsen’s survey:

  • More than half of those surveyed (52%) preferred a microtransaction payment model over a full subscription to acquire content. However, only 43% indicated that implementing an easy payment method would make them more likely to pay for online content.
  • Better than three out of every four survey participants (78%) believe if they already subscribe to a newspaper, magazine, radio or television service they should be able to use its online content for free.
  • At the same time, 71% of global consumers say online content of any kind will have to be considerably better than what is currently free before they will pay for it.
  • Nearly eight out of every ten (79%) would no longer use a web site that charges them, presuming they can find the same information at no cost.
  • As a group, they are ambivalent about whether the quality of online content would suffer if companies could not charge for it—34% think so while 30% do not; and the remaining 36% have no firm opinion.
  • But they are far more united (62%) in their conviction that once they purchase content, it should be theirs to copy or share with whomever they want.

What’s also interesting to note from this survey is the top slots. Movies, Music, Television, and Games. Is there perhaps a program a great number of us already have installed on our machines that gives us direct access to all 4? If you own and iPhone or iPod, or simply like music, television, and movies at your fingertips, chances are you’ve got iTunes installed on your machine. While I’m not going to say that Apple itself has revolutionized the industry, but they have certainly built a platform that has introduced millions to the concept and procedure of purchasing content online with a direct digital deliver method. Now….if print media publishers could reconcile a content gateway through iTunes…well, that might drastically effect the results of the Nielsen survey.

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