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Apple seems to be moving away from being an innovator. People call this "services revenue" but we all know what it really is: a middle man. Was this Steve Jobs dream?


I mean, Steve’s last wwdc he introduced, personally walked through, iCloud including things like iTunes Match. I’d say this is arguably the start of the cloud services Apple and it was so important Steve made sure he presented that segment. So probably, yeah.
 
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A subscription service is the worst thing you could do to gaming. Way to go, Apple. :rolleyes:
 
I’ve not downloaded any games on the App Store for absolutely ages, the whole thing has degenerated into a free-to-play pop-up advert hell. A few years back with the launch of MFi controllers and games like Bioshock, the Grand Theft Autos and Jet Set Radio it looked like maybe iOS would become a very viable gaming platform but since then it’s become an absolute wasteland. Hopefully something will change this, but I think the mobile games market might be too far gone to save.
 
Apple seems to be moving away from being an innovator. People call this "services revenue" but we all know what it really is: a middle man. Was this Steve Jobs dream?

Maybe not a 'middle-man', but more like a 'a reliable and secure platform'...

...the difference lies in the totality of the experience they offer. So, we shall see.
 
Yes whenever people think gaming they think they need an apple product

What isn’t here yet. Could come in the future. Don’ t look where the puck is now, watch where it is going....

So an Apple TV/games console? A possible future product? If they can squeeze in an a13x , they are definitely in Xbox one/ps4 territory. If they can sign a few contracts for blockbuster games, or take over a few established game studios, thinks would go very fast.
Add a dedicated controller to the new Apple TV /console that can also be used with an iPhone or iPad (like gamevice controllers)
And... with the iPhones , iPads and the scalable architecture, they could have a winner and nintendo switch killer .

With project Marzipan , these games could even easily make their way to mac(book)s.

Things can turn around very fast in tech world, especially when the user base is already very, very large...
 
I mean, Steve’s last wwdc he introduced, personally walked through, iCloud including things like iTunes Match. I’d say this is arguably the start of the cloud services Apple and it was so important Steve made sure he presented that segment.

In the late 00's Steve Jobs walked around promoting products to people he thought had the same acmes he had to WiFi/Cellular internet access/service - about 200 people in USA and most of South Korea. He just assumed that people would have them soon enough to use his products like he envisioned.

I doubt he was about iCloud! It was the model of his arch-enemy, Google. Anyone can have (cloud) storage at home, if they had the superb access he had at the time. This is possible even now - there will be no subscription fees for X-GB fixed storage if we all had nanosecond access to Gigabit wireless internet now. Apparently, even Apple hasn't cracked this - they are leasing from Amazon!

The only connectivity fees should be for the best state-of the-art ISP possible on earth; everything should be smooth after that. No one will care if their device is 64GB or 2TB, nothing beyond the space the OS needs. The rest will be the size of the storage they decide to have at home/HQ.
 
The smart move by AAPL would be to move Games to their own, Dedicated App Store !

Been sending emails to Cook for a few years now to do just that !
 
Only if I never see another pop up, watch a free video, or get a bucket of coins for 99.00 pop up. That’s your average iOS game experience.
Seriously though. If the only thing this subscription does is give me a solid list of games that won't make me pay 99¢ to avoid waiting 30 hours for a timer to expire, I'm all in.
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When computers were things for work and not sexy accessories children went out, played football and dodged cars. Will more gaming make anyone happier and healthier? Probably not, but lets get the share price back up.

Gaming - another major contribution to health from Apple!
Dodged cars? You couldn't think of another outdoor activity that was more fun and more safe than playing in traffic?

Or maybe I didn't realize Frogger was actually responsible for saving such a significant portion of my generation during childhood...
 
Nvidia just reported awful numbers in China. Their stock is down 15% right now. Ben Bajarin thinks Apple will have double digit iPhone sales growth decline every quarter this year. Apple will be creating a service for anything they can think of. They’ve got to offset the decline in iPhone revenue somehow. AirPods and Apple Watch aren’t enough.
 
I'm amazed at some of the replies in here. Apple has no 1st party studios to create compelling game experiences to rival Sony/MS/Nintendo or PC games. What will this 'Netflix of gaming' offer - Angry Birds, Candy Crush and Life is Strange? This is a joke right?

My real bet is that Apple uses this as an excuse to why they won't allow Microsoft's upcoming Game Pass Cloud subscription service into the app store. They'll site 'business conflict' or something.
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I’ve not downloaded any games on the App Store for absolutely ages, the whole thing has degenerated into a free-to-play pop-up advert hell. A few years back with the launch of MFi controllers and games like Bioshock, the Grand Theft Autos and Jet Set Radio it looked like maybe iOS would become a very viable gaming platform but since then it’s become an absolute wasteland. Hopefully something will change this, but I think the mobile games market might be too far gone to save.

You want to know why MS/Sony/Nintendo sold 150 million consoles this generation - that's why.
 
Are people really subscribing to Netflix to watch content that they could get elsewhere? I didn’t subscribe to Netflix so I could watch Friends reruns. But maybe other people do. That’s fine if that’s what Apple wants to become. But it makes them a fundamentally different company, one that cares more about keeping Wall Street happy.
A study showed:
80 % of Netflix subscribers prefer licensed content over original content

Can't say I disagree. Name 5 shows Netflix created from scratch.

Guess what that means? Netflix is just a Walmart for content. Some store brands (their original content), but mostly content from other providers. That's one reason Netflix is burning cash. It costs a lot of money to buy content created by others. I think people subscribe to Netflix because it's a convenient way to consume content they like. It may be Jeopardy, it may be Ozark, it may be a combination, but it's on Netflix.

It's up to Netflix (or Apple) to have stuff they want to watch. No one cares about the business behind it.

I do know Netflix is in trouble if they don't make content people CAN'T get other places, because companies like Apple are going to consolidate it too and compete with them. Companies like Disney will make their content exclusive and Netflix will lose content over time. Original content is really what you need.
 
A study showed:
80 % of Netflix subscribers prefer licensed content over original content

Can't say I disagree. Name 5 shows Netflix created from scratch.

Guess what that means? Netflix is just a Walmart for content. Some store brands (their original content), but mostly content from other providers. That's one reason Netflix is burning cash. It costs a lot of money to buy content created by others. I think people subscribe to Netflix because it's a convenient way to consume content they like. It may be Jeopardy, it may be Ozark, it may be a combination, but it's on Netflix.

It's up to Netflix (or Apple) to have stuff they want to watch. No one cares about the business behind it.

I do know Netflix is in trouble if they don't make content people CAN'T get other places, because companies like Apple are going to consolidate it too and compete with them. Companies like Disney will make their content exclusive and Netflix will lose content over time. Original content is really what you need.

Do you realize Sony has been creating original games for 25 years, Nintendo for 33 years and XBox has for 18 years now. Apple has 0 years creating original AAA quality games for their platform. What does this mean in actuality for this proposed 'Netflix gaming' service? It probably means rehashed mobile games.
 
Is it April 1st already?

Apple wants to become a "gaming service"? What are they going to do, rent PC games on a Netflix model? Because Apple sure doesn't make any product worth playing games on. I would love to see a gamer-friendly Mac at not more than a 30% markup from a comparable Windows machine. But it's never going to happen. Apple needs to focus on being able to actually play games before they can start being a middle-man gaming distributor.

Gaming is the one reason I still own a windows PC. Games on Apple are a complete and utter disaster. A pocket-sized touch screen device will never be a good gaming platform, it works for light games you play a few minutes at a time. A real gaming session is 2-16 hours. The AppleTV is a joke of a gaming platform between the horrible controls and lack of graphics capability. And macs have 10% the computing power of a cheap gaming PC.
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I guess you don't use Netflix. For the past couple of years, the majority of the worthwhile content on Netflix is content they did create, they are spending billions of dollars a year on content creation. They are much more interested in being a platform for their own content than licensing other people's content. You think Apple is going to become one of the world's largest game producers? If so, then you can compare them to the Netflix of gaming.
Have any data to back that up? Your opinion that the "majority of worthwhile content" is original is just your opinion.

I don't think any one person "knows" why people subscribe to Netflix, but this study shows licensed content is a huge driver, as in 80%.

As Netflix gets ready to announce its earnings for the first quarter of 2018 later today, a new report by US-based market research and business consultancy 7Park Data revealed that the overwhelming majority of US subscribers to the streaming platform were picking licensed content over original content.

According to the 7Park report, 80 percent of US subscribers to Netflix viewed licensed content over Netflix’s original shows, and 42 percent of Netflix subscribers watched mostly licensed content (95 percent or more of their total streaming). These figures are for the 12-month period ending September 2017.

According to 7Park, just 18 percent of Netflix’s U.S. streaming customers are “originals dominant”


Regardless, anyone can see Netflix will have more competition, more cash drain, and more pressure to create original content. When Apple and other competitors like Disney start competing or in Disney's case, pulling the content, Netflix is going to have a harder time. They NEED original content and they know it. That's why they are burning cash creating it.

Disney on the other hand OWNS a ton of original content and they are about to launch their own service.

Not an enviable position if you're Netflix. Original content creation is hell and many have tried and failed to it.
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Do you realize Sony has been creating original games for 25 years, Nintendo for 33 years and XBox has for 18 years now. Apple has 0 years creating original AAA quality games for their platform. What does this mean in actuality for this proposed 'Netflix gaming' service? It probably means rehashed mobile games.
We don't know yet. My point is, Netflix has shown us there is tremendous value in offering a rehash of content you don't own with a mix of some original content (although according to my study, most people watch licensed content on Netflix).

Convenience is something in which people are willing to pay. Netflix hasn't done anything amazing and it's worth a fortune.

Apple has the cash to buy and create original content. One could argue Netflix actually doesn't have the cash to do so.
 
Ok, where is Apple on original content creation then? You realize Apple can throw wads of cash around and it won't make AAA games magically appear. AAA game take 5-7 years to make and Apple can't make that happen in 1 year because they throw wads of cash. Besides which I can't see any evidence that Apple has created an 'Apple Studios' division to do specifically that.
 
H
According to 7Park, just 18 percent of Netflix’s U.S. streaming customers are “originals dominant”

I'm not going to respond to most of your "citations" because it is utter nonsense and this example typifies it. This is why statistics are worse than damned lies. Netflix has spent billions a year for the past few years creating content, but the vast, vast majority of content on Netflix is 70+ years of accumulated movies and TV shows.

So even if every Netflix Original show is much more popular than every licensed show, the total number of shows streamed will be mostly licensed. Bird Box has had 80 million plays. How does that compared to the Star Wars titles?

Everything you quoted just shows how stats can be abused to prove any lie.

And the real kicker is you cherry picked 7Park. Who has no access to useful data and every incentive to spin these lies:

7Park Data, Inc. operates a cloud-based data analytics platform that provides intelligence solutions for decision makers across the enterprises. It offers reporting services through applications that include real-time on-device monitoring of mobile phones and tablets streaming data points on key metrics, such as active users, engagement trends (time spent and session volume), and retention rates and penetration, as well as offer reporting services through browser that provides real-time in-browser monitoring of a panel of Internet users by capturing data points on key metrics, including page views, ads served, URL paths, and meta data. The company also provides direct access membership solut...

What in the world would these people possibly know about movie/tv show consumption in the living room?
 
I'm not going to respond to most of your "citations" because it is utter nonsense and this example typifies it. This is why statistics are worse than damned lies. Netflix has spent billions a year for the past few years creating content, but the vast, vast majority of content on Netflix is 70+ years of accumulated movies and TV shows.

So even if every Netflix Original show is much more popular than every licensed show, the total number of shows streamed will be mostly licensed. Bird Box has had 80 million plays. How does that compared to the Star Wars titles?

Everything you quoted just shows how stats can be abused to prove any lie.

And the real kicker is you cherry picked 7Park. Who has no access to useful data and every incentive to spin these lies:



What in the world would these people possibly know about movie/tv show consumption in the living room?
You want to compare Star Wars versus Bird Box? Who cares if it has 80M plays. Star Wars >>>>>>> Bird Box, just objectively. Netflix would die to have something 10% of a Star Wars.

Give me data pointing the other way. Pick your source. But comparing Bird Box to Star Wars is laughable. I at least gave you a data point that shows people watch a hell of a lot of licensed content on Netflix.

Netflix, in the end, is a streaming service with nothing proprietary but their own original content. They don't have even close to enough original content to justify their valuation. You're seeing more and more competition and more and more cash burn from Netflix trying to keep up.

Netflix has some decent shows, but they don't have Breaking Bad, Star Wars, or anything close to Disney's library of original and owned content. It's not even close.
 
Apple has ALWAYS blundered when figuring out “gaming”. It’s a market they could have dominated, if they played their cards right.

A subscription service is the way to go in 2019. You just need to do it right. I don’t have high hopes, yet I’ve always wanted to use my Apple TV as a casual gaming device with family and friends.
 
Everyone assumes that if Steve Jobs were still alive and healthy, he would've already released the next breakthrough hardware post iPhone product but it's more likely that he would be on the ropes right now for going all in on a failed hardware product. He would then get booted from his own company again and Cook would probably be the one replacing him so that services can come to the front.
Apple already had around a 100 billion dollars in the bank by the time he died. Doubt that would have happened again. He's not an idiot. He went for innovation and profits over shareholders every time. There is a difference though in what I just said. Shareholders want profits but they want the easy profits like services and crap like that. Steve figured if they came up with innovative products that solved real human problems and made society better that the profits would come naturally.
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I mean, Steve’s last wwdc he introduced, personally walked through, iCloud including things like iTunes Match. I’d say this is arguably the start of the cloud services Apple and it was so important Steve made sure he presented that segment. So probably, yeah.
Well, the purpose of that was to make it easier to do things like syncing contacts and calendars among their different devices so they could sell more devices. It was something that wasn't being done well. They were trying to move iPhone away from needing to sync to iTunes. People forget about that and how you needed to do that all the time with multiple devices. That was around the time the iPad came out and so there was a great reason for doing that. iCloud was free and still is free with Apple devices, you just pay more for storage, which at the time I'm not even sure was a thing or at least functionally needed beyond device backups because I don't think there was full photo sync with the cloud yet.

All I'm saying is that it's impossible to know for sure if this is what he wanted, but the lack of innovation combined with this quick way to make more money to appease investors doesn't seem like something he would have been interested in. At least not in this specific way. He never really cared much for what the investors thought and was more about making profits through innovation and looked at is as a natural thing that happens when you design something for humans that improves their life in an insanely great way. For him profits were protection for Apple to keep thinking differently without going under like they almost did when he was gone. Money wasn't his primary motivation but necessary to continue making advances. He didn't care about money for the sake of money but for how he could use it to rid the world of all the crappy design that he saw.
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Maybe not a 'middle-man', but more like a 'a reliable and secure platform'...

...the difference lies in the totality of the experience they offer. So, we shall see.
I do appreciate that about them.
 
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Do people still play repetive grinding games full of IAPs on mobile phones? Most have switched to PC AAA, console (Playstation or Xbox) or portable console (Nintendo Switch). Haven't bought a new mobile phone game worth playing in years.
 
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There's a lot of FUD in these comments so here's some clarity*.

- The subscription is for app store games and is designed to be like Spotify. Rather than publishing directly on the store, developers games are included in the subscription and they get paid per minute played. All ads and in-app purchases become obsolete and new business models emerge, like gameplay that doesn't depend on tricking players into buying more smurfberries.

This subscription service finally spells the end of dishonest garbage mobile games and we should be thrilled that this is happening.


*I'm not an Apple insider. This info is based on strategies currently been considered elsewhere.
 
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So it's just a way of cleaning up the garbage mobile games? Why do we need a HYPE machine over that?
 
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