Apple® today announced that it is releasing a beta version of its AirPrint wireless printing for iPad™, iPhone® and iPod touch® to members of Apple’s iOS developer program today, and that AirPrint will be included in the free iOS 4.2 software update in November. AirPrint automatically finds printers on local networks and can print text, photos and graphics to them wirelessly over Wi-Fi without the need to install drivers or download software. HP’s existing and upcoming ePrint enabled printers will be the first to support printing direct from iOS devices.
Consumer data from Newzoo’s International Gamers Survey 2010 shows that Apple’s iOS devices have entered the major league of the portable gaming market.
Of the 77 million Americans playing games on mobile phones and portable Apple devices, 40.1 million do so on the iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. That is comparable to the number of Nintendo DS and DSi gamers aged 10 years and up: 41.0 million.
An interesting thing about those numbers is that there is obviously some overlap, which they touch on later in the report. Horses for courses? Or just utter geeks who own all the toys available on the market?
Sony’s PSP is played by 18.0 million Americans.
Sony’s PSP, in its current incarnation, is dead.
Two-thirds of PSP and iPad gamers play games on their portable device at least three days a week compared to approximately fifty percent for the DS, DSi, iPhone and iPod Touch.
The share of paying players is significantly higher for the Nintendo (67%) and Sony devices (66%) compared to iPod Touch / iPhone (45%) and iPad (32%).
Do Sony or Nintendo do any free games?
When you read these figures, and then shortly afterwards read the recent survey on worldwide mobile OS market share, the world of Nokia, Sony, Nintendo and just about any mobile device manufacturer has a big Apple shaped cloud hanging over it.
The majority of the 160 million Americans playing computer games do so on multiple platforms depending on time of day, social setting and mood.
Gaming is now something that people do while commuting, in a boring meeting and on the loo.. as well as sprawled on the sofa in-front of a 42″ Plazma at home.
I thought for a moment in the Apple TV demonstration yesterday that Steve Jobs was flicking the remote control to make the unit do things. That made me wonder if the Apple TV remote was going to have some kind of accelerometer built into it. No-one seems to be talking about that today so I am assuming that Steve is just one of those guys who uses a remote control like a fishing rod…
If anyone knows something I don’t then please do enlighten me.
Steve waxed lyrical yesterday about Apple’s iPod Touch outselling both Sony and Nintendo’s handheld gaming offerings, even when their sales figures were combined.
Nintendo’s Wii has been taking a battering also in the sales department recently. It seems to have reached its own critical mass.
Imagine if Apple did stick a motion control remote on the Apple TV and started selling games for it… Come to think of it, we already have a motion control device in our iPhones, iPads, and the iPod Touch. Most people who buy an Apple TV do own one of those devices after all. And we already know that iDevices will become an optional remote control for the Apple TV – and much more.
Imagine the possibilities for gaming.
An iPod Touch or an iPhone and an Apple TV could eventually be all that Sony hoped the PSP and PS3 would be.
Of course, Apple or anybody else could just push out a game controller for the Apple TV and have done with it.
If the rumour mills are to be believed then the new Apple TV will make an appearance at Apple’s upcoming September 7th event. I have been saying for some time that I don’t see a new Apple TV materialising this year.
My main reason for saying this is that the services that Apple will need to provide to make Apple TV a success are simply not going to be there, at their earliest, before next year.
This editorial from Peter Burrows seems to bear out my opinions. And as such is the largest dollop of common sense I have read on this subject for some time.
Jobs will also show off a new iPod Touch that features a high-resolution screen like the one in the iPhone 4. That’s important, because the company can now say that all of its products are capable of near-HD quality video. Rent a TV show once, and you’d be able to enjoy it on your iPhone during the morning commute, on your PC during a lunchbreak, or on your iPad after dinner.
Making Apple TV the tail on Apple’s video strategy makes sense. Kaufman Brothers analyst Shaw Wu estimates that Apple has sold fewer than three million Apple TVs since the product was introduced three years ago. Even with the refresh, Jobs isn’t convinced the new version will be a mainstream hit, says the person familiar with Apple’s plans. Most consumers aren’t ready to cut the cord to their cable company, or put up with the tech-nastics required to stream content from the iTunes collection on their PC to their living room big-screen TV. In other words, it’s a product that at best will delight some of the “hobbyists” that have always been interested in the product.
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Some analysts do have higher hopes. Assuming the new Apple TV will run on the same IOS software that powers the iPhone and iPad, it will be able to run Apps.
The new Apple TV will very likely be ARM and iOS based. But that still doesn’t mean that it will provide all the services that bloggers are hoping for. If you think back to how the original iPod and iTunes roll out worked, that is how I envisage the next 12 – 24 months of the “new” Apple TV eco-system developing.
My sense is that Apple doesn’t plan to overplay its hand, by making too much of this mobile TV opportunity. This isn’t another “revolution” in the making. Even if Apple wanted to try for that, studios have all but nullified the possibility by refusing to let Apple sell subscriptions to your favorite shows, to be watched whenever and as many times as you like. That might have appealed to consumers who just like a few shows, and don’t want to pay those hefty monthly cable bills.
Instead, the person familiar with Apple’s plan say executives see the rental service as useful primarily for “catch-up viewing”—the ability to watch that episode you missed, or on a lark check out some show recommended by a friend. Apple’s pitch to studios and networks is that the rental service could ultimately bring in billions of incremental dollars, without threatening the lucrative contracts they have with cable companies.
Exactly. And it will take a while for them to come around, and the infrastructure needed to be put in place to make this all happen. And I am simply talking about the US.
What would be really interesting is if Apple were to talk to the BBC in the UK.
If the various analyses detect someone who is not authorized to use the device, it could set off a number of automated features designed to protect the device’s data, suss out the offending party, and alert the device owner. Sensitive data could be backed up to a remote server and the device could be wiped. The device could automatically snap pictures of the unauthorized user and record the GPS coordinates of the device, as well as log keystrokes, phone calls, or other activity. That information could be sent along with an alert to any useful service, such as e-mail, voicemail, Twitter, Facebook, or a “cloud service” like MobileMe.
Some cool stuff there. Should certainly impress the enterprise boys.
Some bloggers (not Ars) are theorizing that Apple may be planning to lock users with Jailbroken devices out of their iPhones. This is a pretty stupid assertion, as not only is jailbreaking now “officially” deemed legal in the US, it was never illegal anywhere else anyway. So persecuting those users would be hard to get away with, not to mention counterproductive for Apple who really simply want to sell hardware.
But what it may mean is that Apple could follow Microsoft’s lead with its XBox Live service and ban jail-broken devices from services for which it provides bandwidth. Like Game Center for example. If it ever takes off.
Phillip Shoemaker, the guy Jobs and Co. brought in to lead the App Store has his owns app under the company name, GrayNoodle LLC. These aren’t your everyday apps from such a professional guy, but are apps that allow you to hear animal fart sounds and practice your mad peeing skills.
For the developers out there, in case you didn’t know… This is the same fine individual who’s in charge of removing and rejecting your fine applications.
