DuckThor Evil
Legend
Qroach said:
Is it?.
The Sony E3 megaton is ... Apple?
- Thread starter McFly
- Start date
Is it?.
AFAIK Sony have put in t he most money. I'm pretty sure it's a fairly even split based on what's been said.
And Sony's MP3 players...
Anyway, i've been thinking about Apple and Sony together for a long time. If this is true, then i'm teh koolerest.
Anyway, i've been thinking about Apple and Sony together for a long time. If this is true, then i'm teh koolerest.
Acert93 said:
Kaz Hirai talked about microtransactions at last E3 or the one before that. They specifically said they don't believe subscriptions work as an online business model, that they thought microtransactions would be the way.
But Kaz also talked about a Netscape browser for the PS2. Maybe last year iTunes sales looked replicable for gaming content but this year, there's a lot of hype around subscription music services like Napster and the new Yahoo service.
So who knows what their latest position is. Would not surprise me if any HDD for the PS3 is optional.
wco81 said:
Yeah.. like saying "sony's bomb".. u know, their big gun, their big thing, big surprise...
blakjedi said:
Sony software design has been widely panned. So has Apple's UI in many quarters. But iTunes is way more popular than Sony's SoundStage or whatever they call it.
Sony comes up with unusual and futuristic designs. They're not necessarily ergonomic but they're cool. Apple design is streamlined, simple, minialistic in many ways.
I didn't know there would be a dashboard or some elaborate interface. The PS2 has a browser to set the widescreen mode and manage the memory card but most people don't use it much. It would be nice to have some kind of UI like the XBox UI which is always online and lets you boot a game without restarting, if I understand the new 360 UI correctly.
I don't think pretty screens or even pretty box or the ability to listen to iTunes/iPod on the PS3 is necessarily a big selling point for consumers. It would draw a lot of hype and media coverage but when consumers are looking at which console to get, I really doubt being able to connect an iPod or looking at Aqua on the PS3 will sway many people.
Apple users have to buy consoles anyways since Macs don't get games. I don't think they're necessarily going to be swayed by a Sony-Apple collaboration. And even if they are, there aren't that many of them to make a big difference.
AFAIK, Sony still plans to come out with those new MP3 players, the ones with the slick OLED screens. And to a certain extent, the iPod is a competitor to consoles for dollars. The target demographics of DAPs and consoles overlap a lot.
iPod is going to connect to the Xbox 360 also :?
http://www.tomshardware.com/hardnews/20050514_173740.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/hardnews/20050514_173740.html
marconelly!
Veteran
I don't think you can buy music through Xbox 360 and put in on the connected Ipod. If this is really true (which I doubt) it's the integration of Itunes and Apple's help with UI that's a big news. Ipod's seamless syncing would be a natural extension of such setup. However, Using Itunes would rule out all Sony's MP3 and Atrac playing devices, including PSP (Unless Apple is willing to provide downloads in those formats too). That's why I think this has no chance of happening.
Acert93 said:
Hmm they would need more details. If they just mount it as a USB device and use some third-party software to access the music (iPod and iTunes do not store songs on the iPod in neat folders containing all the tracks from an album, they scatter them all over the place), I guess it would work.
MS might have to get third-party to support AAC. You wouldn't think they would be able to play back Fairplay-protected files without Apple's cooperation.
Strategically, you would think they'd encourage use of WMA players over the iPod.
JF_Aidan_Pryde
Regular
All MS has to do is allow the Windows version of iTunes work on XBOX.
marconelly!
Veteran
Yeah, but aren't they instead using their own music store service on Xbox 360, which is WMA only? Xbox 360 does not feature iTunes, and if that turns to be something exclusive to PS3, the full Itunes/Ipod support would definitely be something that is appealing to consumers. It would however be a very weird decision from Sony's own hardware perspective.
Just as Sony are talking collaboration with Toshiba about the next HD-DVD standard, I can imagine them wanting to consolidate a fractured downloads market. Already you have to have several different download clients if you want all the available media. I imagine there's large economies of scale when getting loads more customers.
Working with Apple, who seem to have become the number one name in these emerging field, perhaps the idea is to combine iTunes with Sony's download service, providing a unified service for iPod and PSP and PC and whatever? There'd have to be a lot of incentive added for Apple though as this could damage their lucrative iPod hardware market.
Subscription won't work IMO. When people can download as much as they want for a fixed price, recording companies are going to lose sooo much revenue compared to what they currently have. I'd love to know how the economics of these subscription services work out.
And regards 'megaton' wco81 - the idea is that this is such a big 'bombshell' that it's more of a megaton Nuke. The term megaton implies something mammoth like Halo appearing on PS or something equally bizarre. It's not just a big thing, but an enormous thing. That's what the GAF people were saying and they used this more apt 'megaton' slang to describe it
Working with Apple, who seem to have become the number one name in these emerging field, perhaps the idea is to combine iTunes with Sony's download service, providing a unified service for iPod and PSP and PC and whatever? There'd have to be a lot of incentive added for Apple though as this could damage their lucrative iPod hardware market.
Subscription won't work IMO. When people can download as much as they want for a fixed price, recording companies are going to lose sooo much revenue compared to what they currently have. I'd love to know how the economics of these subscription services work out.
And regards 'megaton' wco81 - the idea is that this is such a big 'bombshell' that it's more of a megaton Nuke. The term megaton implies something mammoth like Halo appearing on PS or something equally bizarre. It's not just a big thing, but an enormous thing. That's what the GAF people were saying and they used this more apt 'megaton' slang to describe it
Of course they will. For the simple reason that good design costs money. Original, good design costs even more.Evil_Cloud said:Let's hope they won't charge extra for the design alone...
Even Microsoft spends some time and money on design (whether you think much of what they come up with or not) so you're going to pay for design no matter who you buy from. As is proper.
Get used to the idea.
Not really.marconelly! said:
During this Chrismas quarter 4.5 million iPods were sold, and projected total volume during 2005 is projected to be around 15 million. Predictions are difficult, because the growth has so far been fast and exponential, which isn't sustainable of course. So all projections try to take that into account, but then by definition, you have a hard time making extrapolations.
The fact of the matter is that the iPod is the absolute market leader.
It achieves this by virtue of offering not only a good player with nice design, UI and being reasonably priced, but also by offering a complete infrastructure with good computer software, a good store with reasonable consumer rights, good facilities for streaming your music around the house and to other people wirelessly (reduced now after pressure from the publishers). You don't whip up an alternative total solution quickly or easily, and more importantly, you don't whip up a better total solution easily at all. Noone has so far, and the attempts have been pretty feeble in comparison.
What it seems the industry has started to realise and accept is that the market defined by the iPod is no longer up for grabs. The volume is too large, and the market leader is efficient at plugging the holes. At that point they have to decide whether to start working with the market leader or continue to try to block the iPod in an effort to promote their own alternate solution.
They don't necessarily have to support iPod/iTunes exlusively, but not having support would be a weakness, and having good support is looking like a very smart move today. It wasn't nearly as obviously so, say, one and a half year ago. But today, and looking forward, if you want to ensure that you fit in with peoples digital media lives, you want to play nice with the iPod.
Are you saying that IBM won't supply Apple with CPUs in the future?Glonk said:
Why would IBM want to loose a steady customer of relatively high margin CPUs? Who, if IBM didn't supply their processors, would take their business to IBMs competitors?
Seems like a singularly stupid business decision by IBM, so what do you mean, really?
DuckThor Evil
Legend
Entropy said:
I think he is suggesting that IBM is starting to make computers on their own with Cell tech inside.
