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Apple Focusing on These Eight New Low-Cost Devices in 2025
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HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
It's just simply a money thing. Apple runs a "Build it and they will come" model... as in "look here, we've built powerful hardware capable of AAA gaming... now bring your games to Mac."
The rest of the gaming players have huge allocations of money to subsidize game creation. Gaming competitors allocate some of their cash hoards to buying whole gaming studios to then make their game portfolio into exclusives for a given platform. There have been MANY such opportunities popping up in the last 10-15 years and Apple is not exactly cash starved. How many major game studios have "serious about gaming" Apple acquired?
PC and platform customers are accustomed to paying much more than $1-$5 for games- it's actually "normal" for them. Meanwhile, when the occasional bigger game gets a test on Apple tech, Apple people freak out if the dev wants more than $1-$5 and/or attempts to monetize with some embedded advertising and/or in-app purchases. Where's the money for the devs??? They build the game over years in hopes of making money on it... NOT for charity.
Lastly, the whole Epic games fiasco pits the 64000LB gorilla pounding away at a major game studio in court battle after court battle... while kicking the revenue stream for that game dev out of the store. Feel about this however you want but the message sent to all game developers is that Apple is not nearly the good partner that others are: it's Apple's way or the highway (or expensive legal actions). And Apple steps up for first big cut right off the top, even before the creator of the game gets a nickel. How often do you see Sony or Microsoft pounding away at big game developers for years through legal means?
If you can step outside any brand bias and put yourself in developer shoes: for whom do YOU want to develop big games that can take years of work? A company that may eject your games from the store at any time and who certainly puts themselves first? A company that may attempt to sue you into oblivion using much deeper pockets? A company with no subsidy money (you cover dev out of YOUR own pocket)? A market that freaks if you want more than about $5 for the game and rips into other ways to monetize your efforts such as advertising and in-app? Another way to ask the question is: why would you want to develop a big game for Mac?
The other pastures are much, MUCH greener (and friendlier) than a DEV taking on all of the cost & risk of developing a big game for Apple tech, stripped of comparable pricing, advertising and in-app revenue (as too many of the fandom seem to want them) and at risk of being kicked out of the store and potentially relentlessly sued for years. The other markets are accustomed to paying much more for games and/or accepting of other ways to make some money for the efforts of creating the games.
Apple is serious about gaming "this time" when they allocate an AppleTV+ like budget to gaming for subsidies, buying a few major gaming studios, etc... like they are "being serious" about streaming video by allocating money and Human Resources to creating original visual content. They're serious when they shift from a "me" focus to a "we" (prosper together) focus, as in being a more attractive partner/channel for game distribution... and when they settle suits in a way that gives the developer of the games better opportunity to reap the rewards of THEIR work.
While games remain just recurring lip service every few years, Apple can "build it" all they want but gaming will NOT come. The game competitors have a thriving model worked out. Play ball or go home.
I like Apple tech just fine but when it comes to gaming, hope gets you nowhere. Get yourself a gaming PC or one of the consoles and enjoy the big games today. All those other players ARE serious about gaming, demonstrated in very tangible ways- measured in hard cash and human talent investments- that go beyond only marketing spin.
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I’ve a LG OLED smart tv with the Apple TV app. No extra wires, no extra devises. It’s all build in and it also supports AirPlay and all the things Apple has to offer. Sublime UI and no extra Apple TV needed.
I live in Canada … low-price Apple devices don’t exist
I ditched the Apple TV when I got the LG smart TV. It's great without the extra wires.
But I have to say, it was much faster using tvOS to manage apps and Apple content, than the LG native software.
If Apple comes out with a new base iPad with those specs, I will trade in my iPad Air 3.
Yes, apples AppStore is definitely better. But for watching movies, YouTube, Netflix and Amazon prime, the experience is definitely better than AppleTV. I always find it very hard to see which movie or series I’ve selected on appletv. Also the layout of appletv looks dated compared to Netflix or Prime.
While I appreciate the interface, every app you are running on Apple TV is feeding info back to the streaming provider. There is still spying.
I personally like the Roku interface better. Have a Firewalla running on the network, though, to block all the phoning home, tracking and ads. Plus is friendlier to our mixed android/iOS household.
I was thinking similarly. They must mean low cost compared to a MacBook Pro.
It's low compared to the regular iPhone or Pro, and if anything like the previous SE models, you'll routinely find it on sale from various retailers for $100-200 with service.
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Not in Europe. Phones are not tied to service.
They could distract it from older trade in iPhones. Apple probably won’t sell new AppleTV’s in high numbers because all of the capabilities are already available in modern smart tv’s.
Highest valued? So why is their marketshare so small and schrinking?
Oh, how so? I dont see anyone else really beating the M series chips all that well right now just as one thought… and definitely not on the “low to midrange”
They are ~58% of smartphone market in the US (their primary market) and growing.
Worth remembering that they actually were making major headway in the very early aughts, halo was originally a mac first targeted game until microsoft bought bungie because they needed a flagship title for xbox.More like recycle an old mac or iPhone to do this.
Apple will never succeed in games, they have been trying since at least 1996 and are getting nowhere.
Game Sprockets - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
I’ve always wondered why Apple doesnt just buy a AAA studio or two like MS has
I tried AppleTV app on my Samsung and it doesn’t work as good as a real AppleTV, especially since I’m using a couple HomePods as audio setup.
I get where you're coming from, but on a TV box ... it feels misplaced
Every one of the streaming services being used, even on Apple TV, is hoovering up your viewing data and using it
You can't prevent it .. it happens on their side
I’m trying to be as much “Google free” as I can.
I had a very very very bad experience with Google (too long to be detailed here) that cost me A LOT. It took months to be recovered. Months.
You really cannot trust Google on anything.
Totally respect that and hear where you are coming from
Looking forward to the 32" iMac Pro with $2499 BTO options. (Not really...)
Hope Apple avoids the temptation of moving the premium hardware so ridiculously high-end that a $1000 phone IS "low cost". But wouldn't be surprised.