It's just a rumor....
http://www.dashhacks.com/articles/apple-acquire-sony-ea-get-f-outta-here
http://www.dashhacks.com/articles/apple-acquire-sony-ea-get-f-outta-here
Apple to Acquire Sony, EA?! Get the F Outta Here...
- Thread starter baten
- Start date
Silent_Buddha
Legend
I don't see where Sony makes much sense for them. The movie and music side might be OK. But do they really want to get into the whole publishing mess? I just don't see TVs and home entertainment systems as being a good fit either. And I'm not sure Apple really wants to take a dip into home consoles. As well, there'd be some stiff resistence from the Japanese government as Sony controls some financial services over there.
EA makes a bit of sense. But that doesn't seem like a good fit either.
Adobe and possibly Walt Disney as speculated in that article would make a whole lot more sense. Especially Adobe as that has a lot of synergy with Apple Products despite Jobs disliking Flash.
Walk Disney would be an interesting case. It gets them into movies and music as well as television (ABC, ESPN, etc.) and some game developement. Although why Apple would want to enter into such a risky business sector?
But Sony? Nope, that one just doesn't make a lot of sense.
Regards,
SB
EA makes a bit of sense. But that doesn't seem like a good fit either.
Adobe and possibly Walt Disney as speculated in that article would make a whole lot more sense. Especially Adobe as that has a lot of synergy with Apple Products despite Jobs disliking Flash.
Walk Disney would be an interesting case. It gets them into movies and music as well as television (ABC, ESPN, etc.) and some game developement. Although why Apple would want to enter into such a risky business sector?
But Sony? Nope, that one just doesn't make a lot of sense.
Regards,
SB
Yeah Sony makes no sense. I doubt Apple wants a nondescript, now outsourced TV business thats not particularly profitable...I doubt they want a big old hot hardcore games console built on brute power that's not particularly profitable...basically Sony doesnt fit Apple at all.
Besides that I'm pretty sure it seems impossible for a major american company to take over a major Japanese one...due to cultural resistance in Japan.
Besides that I'm pretty sure it seems impossible for a major american company to take over a major Japanese one...due to cultural resistance in Japan.
Something (social) network or community centric would complement Apple well. e.g., NetFlix to help push Apple FairPlay + Disney KeyChest (vs DECE's Qriocity), FaceBook investment for tighter integration with Ping and other Apple services.
The increased bandwidth usage also allows them to lower their collective bandwidth cost for more aggressive MobileMe and iTunes play.
The increased bandwidth usage also allows them to lower their collective bandwidth cost for more aggressive MobileMe and iTunes play.
I read that apple last quarter had $20billion revenue (this in a non christmas quarter!) thus we have a distinct possibility that it will within a couple of years (if it keeeps on going from strength to strength) to become a bigger companiy than either MS or SONY + go over $100billion
MS revenue $62billion
sony revenue $77billion
nintendo $15billion
In the year 2000 who'ld of thought that?, as well as google,facebook.
It does make you wonder what the landscape will look like in 2020
MS revenue $62billion
sony revenue $77billion
nintendo $15billion
In the year 2000 who'ld of thought that?, as well as google,facebook.
It does make you wonder what the landscape will look like in 2020
Sony != Playstation
I could easily see Apple wanting to buy the Playstation brand from Sony.
It fits their intention to get into the living room and puts them on (roughly) equal footing to MS. AppleTV would be easy enough to integrate into ps4.
Financially, it makes sense as Sony doesn't have a ton of cash to front another gen with losses up front. That puts Sony in the position of either hoping MS doesn't push tech as hard as last gen (possibility) or getting bypassed by having a underpowered machine.
Conversely, Apple has more than enough cash to go toe to toe with MS. Personally, I'd love to see this as MS would have a tough competitor again that has an edge in many areas. They might even work out an arrangement with Sony to incorporate AppleTV tech into every Sony to coincide with their Playstation initiative.
I'd expect MS to respond by purchasing Blackberry to shore up their mobile offering.
I'll be keeping my fingers crossed on this one!
I could easily see Apple wanting to buy the Playstation brand from Sony.
It fits their intention to get into the living room and puts them on (roughly) equal footing to MS. AppleTV would be easy enough to integrate into ps4.
Financially, it makes sense as Sony doesn't have a ton of cash to front another gen with losses up front. That puts Sony in the position of either hoping MS doesn't push tech as hard as last gen (possibility) or getting bypassed by having a underpowered machine.
Conversely, Apple has more than enough cash to go toe to toe with MS. Personally, I'd love to see this as MS would have a tough competitor again that has an edge in many areas. They might even work out an arrangement with Sony to incorporate AppleTV tech into every Sony to coincide with their Playstation initiative.
I'd expect MS to respond by purchasing Blackberry to shore up their mobile offering.
I'll be keeping my fingers crossed on this one!
Blackberry is garbage and has nothing to offer. Outside of a miracle in the next few years, they'll be a nobody in the smartphone world. THeir phones are terrible compared to the iphone/droid devices. It's just that people have been conditioned to them. Eventually they'll switch.
and yet they completely control the smartphone business market, and then there's the part where their stock is up significantly after a demo of their playbook yesterday.
Agreed.
They are hardly a Droid or IPhone competitor, but in the business world, they are the standard. I'd see MS incorporating Blackberry technology into windows phone 8/9.
specwarGP2
Regular
Maybe not another hardcore console right away but definitely enough room for a casual one. From there apple can work its way up into the hardcore market.
I find blackberries difficult to use, but there are a lot of awesome things about blackberry enterprise server. RIM is still strong. I don't know if they'll ever win their way into the consumer market as much as apple, but I think they can dominate the business users. QNX was an amazing acquisition.
Buying the gaming division from Sony seems like a wonderful prospect but I'm not sure I see it fitting with Apple's... style. What would they use Playstation tech for? To shore up the hardcore games market? It seems that everything Apple does, interfacewise, blatantly indicates that they're not interested in 14-button controllers. And again, what would they get, techwise? Move? Cell? It all seems overpriced, if you had to buy the whole shop. At best they could lockdown SCEA to make iOS games, that would be a serious coup, but surely overpriced. EA seems a much more sensible target, and clearly, their managements would really see eye-to-eye -- keep gameplay (relatively) simple, lock users in, datamine the shit out of them, charge a bundle for DLC, and string em along with sequels...
Not so much the tech (although it helps) it's the brand and with it the customers which brings them into the living room. It's hard to believe with all the hype Apple gets lately, but they tried to develop their way into the livingroom before with AppleTV, and failed.
Remember, datamining and selling sequels and all the rest of it is done a lot easier and broader as a platform holder rather than a platform developer. And as is, Playstation holds a significant chunk of the market with which they can expand.
Apple wants a way into the livingroom, and Playstation (not necessarily Sony) would provide ample force to get there asap.
- As far as interface is concerned, that's a tricky one. I think we will see a shift next gen prompted by Playstation4, xbox720, and wii2 that will encourage simpler interfaces as a default. Wii, Move and Kinect were the start of this trend, but I think it was a wake up call for the industry that there is a large portion of population that is interested in gaming, but not interested in the complex control interfaces. What that means for future games may be an inverse of what we have now where games will instead say, "supports DS3/4" instead of supports Move or supports Kinect. Those simple interfaces would become the default mandatory control interfaces while our gamepads of today would become an accessory. A huge shift in the industry for sure, but one that I think will be a good thing in the long run to help the industry grow and mature.
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Even buying the playstation brand doesn't seem to me like the best business decision. It has never been particularly profitable (until the latest years of each generation of consoles) and this goes completely against Apple's usual ethos.
We're talking about a company which is in the position to sell iphones at inflated prices knowing that they will sell like hotcakes anyway. Same for their computers and ipods. Sony tried this last time with the PS3 and lost massive, massive amounts of market share - and money.
Unless somehow Apple can make the playstation brand profitable from day 1, or expect that they can, then this just won't happen.
We're talking about a company which is in the position to sell iphones at inflated prices knowing that they will sell like hotcakes anyway. Same for their computers and ipods. Sony tried this last time with the PS3 and lost massive, massive amounts of market share - and money.
Unless somehow Apple can make the playstation brand profitable from day 1, or expect that they can, then this just won't happen.
Sony didn't try the same - they sold very expensive hardware at a loss, versus Apple selling at considerable profit and locking their consumers into iTunes for the media and apps. The real reason Apple have taken off is because they provided a vaguely open software platform that anyone could develop for with a little investment, and launched the whole app scene. They have no need for PlayStation or Sony. they can carry on with their existing momentum, using their money to secure deals etc.
There's no way Apple buys Sony. They'd be inheriting an absolutely massive, and completely different, corporate culture. No way would it would. I could see Apple buying a small division of Sony, if there were a particular product they wanted, but what would that be? I can't think of anything.
There was a time when Sony was considering buying Apple, but Apple's product growth is centered on wholly different premises than acquisitions. They acquired PA Semi for back-end work, but product is "front of the house," and IMO that is all Apple (and Foxconn by default), at least so long as Jobs is alive.