Phil Harrison sees dominant Apple, biometric screens in the future

@Narmo23 1 year ago before the fail that is Nintendo right now if you came on this site saying Apple would be anything in gaming all of the bright guys here had plenty of nice things to say.

Apple will continue to take over the game space without alerting anyone and will eventually enter the console market where they will dominate Ninetndo, MS and Sony.

I look forward to serving our new masters.

@Fire Walk With Me Something tells me you like Apple....

@Fire Walk With Me

must be nice to pay for a license to something you never truly own, if you read apples lovely little product agreement, you get this little bit.


1. General. The software (including Boot ROM code and other embedded software), documentation, interfaces, content, fonts and any data that came with your iPhone ("Original iPhone
Software"), as may be updated or replaced by feature enhancements, software updates or system restore software provided by Apple ("iPhone Software Updates"), whether in read only
memory, on any other media or in any other form (the Original iPhone Software and iPhone Software Updates are collectively referred to as the "iPhone Software") are licensed, not sold, to you
by Apple Inc. ("Apple") for use only under the terms of this License. Apple and its licensors retain ownership of the iPhone Software itself and reserve all rights not expressly granted to you.

Personally i will never give a dime to apple, if apple takes over the gaming industry at any point then i will go back to board games over playing or using an apple product.

@asojax

Doesn't Sony have a similar product agreement?

@Narmo23 The biometric thing is out there.

I agree on the eggness

@gshauger : well said. This guy couldn't have any less of a clue.

@psycros omg Apple is stuck only making phones now? i missed when congress pass that law link please?

@gshauger

You guys assume Apple won't evolve. And, it won't even take much. They already have 'portable gaming devices' and the largest online game store. All they really need to begin a full-on assault is another new $99 version of the Apple TV (which you know they will) with flash storage, allow to buy games from the App Store, and an optional third party bluetooth controller and/or use your existing iOS portable; You'll have no choice but to eat crow as you watch developers, consumers, and the industry as a whole embrace it with open arms.

I don't care if you love or hate Apple, but it would take some serious amount of denial to not acknowledge their impact on the industry in the near future, if not for the impact they've made already.

@Chibi Chaingun they've been selling inferior products for ridiculously jacked up prices for years

I wouldn't count on them evolving anytime soon

@Vuvuzelas

Meh, that's a debate for another time and another place. :)

-Sent from Windows 7 PC

@gshauger

Right. I'm totally going to take the advice of a guy who couldn't hold down 3 different jobs in 5 years. He knows all about how the future is going to pan out.

@Schlecht that would be Android.

@Ben64

That would also most definitely be Apple.

@Meekermoloko how will you access the cloud? Magic?
or perhaps this way?: http://www.apple.com/icloud/

@Meekermoloko thank you for taking the words out of my mouth... I was about to rant about how stupid this guy is...

Apple has no first party games, no memorable franchises... nothing but an appstore... What's to stop Nintendo from releasing a phone in the future or an appstore on android, or something to that effect and completely dominating Apple?

I think that the iPhone is only successful because of how it innovated at the start, now the only reason to own one is the appstore. Once someone eventually does the appstore better, then Apple will be done.

@Fire Walk With Me

I never said Apple wouldn't have games on the cloud. Amazon, Windows, Google also have cloud services among others. iCloud is just the most recent.

True, but Apple also has a sterile platform, an easy to use self-publishing marketplace, great developer tools built around open source technology, and a long history in the computer market. They've been making software and hardware longer than any of the current console making companies, and all levels of talent are making games for their platforms. Things like OnLive are showing that computing power is no longer important, and you can now play Duke Nukem Forever on an iPad.

It comes down to money. Right now the game industry has eyes on Facebook, iPhone and Kinect/Move because thats where the money comes from. For every Joystiq reader in denial there's a thousand iOS users downloading a game for their iThing.

@twocows
Pardon, I meant to say pretty good justification on Slashdot this morning.

@twocows Apple a Trend?? doubtful....Facebook? maybe so....but only if they mess up bad....they are making BILLIONS from Advertisements....companies are putting their facebook page on their TV Commercials instead of their actual websites....Facebook is far more than a trend IMO....

@Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi
Apple sees biggest usage in typical trend groups: high school and college students. The typical signs of a trend are there, as well: people buying overpriced merchandise, sudden rise in popularity at the start of the trend, and responses bordering on hatred against anyone who tries to argue against the use of the product. It's also seeing some adoption by older users, something that tends to happen at the tail end of a trend (also occurring with Facebook to a greater extent at the moment).

The problem with Apple is that they offer solutions that have been around for years, albeit with a bit of rebranding. OS X was just rebranded BSD/Linux, Safari was a rebranding of Konqueror/KHTML in the most literal sense of the word, the iPod was just another music player, the iPhone was just a rebranding of some of the more popular foreign phones, and the iPad is just a big touchpad. Even iTunes, the only Apple service I think offers much over competing services, is nothing really new, it just does its job better (I wouldn't call it the Steam of music, but it's getting there).

When people start realizing that they're really not offering anything new, the popularity will bottom out pretty fast. There will still be a few die-hard fans as happens with any dead trend, but they'll be in the minority. At least in the OS market, though, I expect something to rise in its place; Microsoft won't ever go unopposed.

@twocows

"the iPhone was just a rebranding of some of the more popular foreign phones"

I stopped reading here due to severe straw grasping.

@twocows most of my coworkers have an iPhone, and they are not high school students...

@Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi
As someone who is studying the web, I can say with absolute confidence that Facebook has an expiration date. Five years ago, did you think that about MySpace? When people find a better way to communicate and interact, they will utilize it. Facebook did a lot of things right but a hell of a lot of things wrong.

I think Apple's success craze has an expiration date too. Technology is moving towards a future where EVERYTHING you own can (and will be) internet activated and interactive. Apple's closed ecosystem can't survive in a world where you can't possibly predict which devices any given user will use in a day.

@twocows Apple makes very useful products. As a film student finalcut pro is an excellent product. Plus no anti virus sliding down the comp helps editing. Facebook may be a trend but not apple.

@Patricio87
Even Apple recommends anti-virus these days; if you don't use one, you're setting yourself up.

As for Final Cut Pro, there are plenty of equivalent programs. Obviously none are going to be exactly the same, but what can you do?

@Ben64
Like I said, the primary user demos are high school and college students. That doesn't mean there are none that use their products otherwise. The iPhone especially has a broader appeal because, for the most part, it has feature parity with other competing devices (the problem with OS X). Also, most people use cell phones (the problem with iPods). Those two things are going to drive up usage demos for the iPhone in other groups, though I'd guess that even then there are still more college and high school students using them (that's just speculation, though).

Yeah, a trend ever since the 1980's! That's a pretty long time, buddy, maybe you should look up the word "trend."

@mandarin

I really don't see the logic. If a consumer can afford a game console then they can presumably afford whatever Apple's offering would be, since he his talking about what's to come.

@mandarin Little economics question, which is more expensive a $250 handheld with $ 40-50 or a ipod touch for $250 (or ipad for $499) with games that cost $1-10?

Initial investment isn't where these things bite your wallet mate, it's where you end up. Heck after a year of buying one game a month the ipad 2 is already cheaper and it's a 10 inch tablet.

@Grayden

" unless Apple radically changes their philosophy of locked-down hardware and software, there is no way they will become a major player in the gaming industry"

What do you think the PS3, 360, and Wii are?

@Grayden Fortunately for us, Apple broke their own market by allowing so many free apps onto the store. The average iPhone "gamer" (I don't mean that in a condescending way, I just mean people who buy iPhone games) is not willing to spend more than even two or three dollars on a game. Publishers may be dipping their feet in iOS games but why would any AAA developer take iOS seriously when they have multiple platforms where $50++ is embraced?

If Apple wants any more of the gaming market, they best be ready for some major revisions (read: they're not).

@Grayden So you haven't been reading the posts on joystiq about how even the current batch of ios devices are starting to wireless-ly link to the tv?

As for the vastly more powerful, don't get too puffed up as the ipad 2 is already past the wii and mobile hardware is leapfrogging forward at a silly rate year on year.

I've watched my ipod touch move from a sub million to 1 million then boom 25 million polygons in only 3 jumps so what Apple brings next will actually be on par with the 360 or past it.

@Ben64 I have an Android phone and an iTouch. Oh shit. Double the stalking.