Home opinion-and-analysis Beer Files Apple games yes, consoles no

Author's Opinion

The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of iTWire.

Have your say and comment below.

Get all your tech news delivered to your mail box five days a week
iTWire UPDATE - it's FREE!


Anyone who suggests that Apple Computer would even consider going head-to-head against Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo in the games consoles space would have to be off their rocker. However, Apple entering the games market is a distinct probability.

Apple always has and, while Steve Jobs is around, always will make its money by selling hardware not software. Games consoles is a hardware loss-making business period.

So the problem for Apple is how does the company make money on games while still making money on its hardware. There are a number of possibilities.

Some sort of variation on the iPod already presents itself as a possible contender to be a portable games device. Apple is known to have a patent for a touch screen device that could take on different personalities and menus depending on what mode it will run in. One of the modes could be games.

The home is a different question. What does Apple put in the lounge room? So far what we have heard about is a device called an iTV, which we have naturally assumed to be purely a device to stream videos from a Mac to your TV. Could it also be used to stream games processed on a beefed up Mac? Could it have some local processing capabilities, although that would add to the cost? Would the games be downloaded from iTunes and burned to DVD or even stored on a large hard drive? Who would develop the games?

There are a lot of unanswered questions. However, Apple is not a company content to sit still. In order to grow, it has already dropped hints, without actually saying so, that it wants a piece of the mobile phone action. When it pre-announced the iTV, Apple signalled its intention to move into the lounge room of consumers. There is no reason to assume that it will simply stop at videos.

RECRUITMENT & RETENTION REPORT 2013

HIRE OR FIRE? BUY OR BUILD

2013 is well underway and Australian companies need to know whether they should invest in IT skills training or pay a premium for the people they need.

If you want to know which choices are being made in your sector, what skills are hard to find, which sectors intend to hire or fire and where the IT spend is going, this free report is must have.

GET YOUR REPORT NOW

Stan Beer

 

Stan Beer co-founded iTWire in 2005. With 25 years of experience working in Australian technology media, Beer has published articles in most of the IT publications that have mattered, including the AFR, The Australian, SMH, The Age, as well as a multitude of trade publications.

Connect

http://bs.serving-sys.com/BurstingPipe/adServer.bs?cn=tf&c=19&mc=imp&pli=5460041&PluID=0&ord=[2000]&rtu=-1