The moderator of PS3 Forums, “The Unofficial PS3 H.Q.” has posted the following:
Apple + Sony = PS3
I am now hearing stronger rumors that Sony is indeed working with Apple on the PS3. Most of this work is based around support for iTunes and iPop on the PS3.
iPod connectivity – Ability to connect the iPod to the PS3 and play it’s music through the PS3 to your stereo or other audio playback devices. Will also provide some graphical effects on your TV during playback
iTunes linkup – Access iTunes and your music through the PS3. Purchase and download additiona tracks through the PS3. Wirelessly play iTunes music from your PC/Mac through the PS3
Sync support – Use the PS3 to sync your iPod with iTunes, no need for a PC or Mac to sync and add/remove tracks and organize playlists.
Apple may also be helping Sony with some UI design for the PS3 dashboard interface. No links, and for that I appologize, but I figured people would like to hear this information anyways. If the rumors hold true, this would be mutually benefitical for Sony and Apple in a lot of ways.
Full post and forum discussion here.
And, over at Engadget, Joshua Fruhlinger is reporting that, “Merrill Lynch analyst Steven Milunovich thinks Apple and Sony could be working on some big things.” Full article here.
Steve Jobs at MacWorld Expo 2005, Tuesday, January 11, 2005, “You know, we do work very closely with Sony on digital still cameras and these new camcorders, which is really great. And who knows, maybe someday, computers and music, too.” QuickTime video of Steve Jobs’ comment at 57:38.
MacDailyNews Take: This is a rumor. Take it with a grain of salt. It would be very interesting, though, wouldn’t it?
Related MacDailyNews articles:
New Sony NAS-CZ1 Network Audio System the first non-Apple player to support iTunes Music Store DRM – April 18, 2005
Think of it like this: Sony lose money on every PS they sell, and make the money back on the games. If Sony and Apple collaborate on the next PS3, maybe Sony puts iTunes/iPod compatibility on their PS3, and also ensure their games will run on the latest (and presumably yet-to-be-released) Apple hardware. Everyone wins – Sony sell more games, which is where they make the money, Apple gets a major boost to the top of the games-playing PCs league, and the iPod/iTunes combo spreads its tentacles yet further.
I think this story has legs.
What none of you realise is that SONY is a very dis-jointed organisation.
To have their games division working in partnership with APPLE is not totally inconcievable.
Also the fact that to stay ahead of the game from Microsoft, SONY’s game division needs all the help it can get from partners – whether it’s APPLE’s ipod connectivity or whatever.
The PS3 is aimed at exactly the same market as the ipod.
iPod/iTunes + PS3 makes no sense. It cannibalizes Apple’s Mac sales (esp. the Mini) and Sony’s Walkman and music sales. There’s more mutual harm than benefit. This is beside the fact Sony isn’t renown for it’s partnerships.
Right now, I say the rumor is bogus. But then again there was a time when Apple and IBM were arch-enemies and would NEVER have worked together on anything either….
Whats interesting is that xBox is a THREE PowerPC processor machine with each chip running OVER 3Ghz. Yet Apple/IBM were not able to come up with a processor at that speed when Steve Jobs made that notion on the first G5 appearance. These chips were custom made by IBM for Microsoft.
I think there was an exclusivity contract clause between IBM/Microsoft for the 3Ghz speed chips when the first G5 came out and Microsoft jumped on it….thus making Steve Jobs “Not keeping his word”.
That’s just me.
giofoto,
The G5 Apple uses is a very different chip from the PPC chip that Xbox uses. The G5 has dual altivec engines attached to it. Microsoft’s PPC chip has 3 cores with no altivec engines. The 2.5 MHz G5 is faster at most tasks.
Remember your Megahertz Myth lessons. You can not use Megahertz as a metric to compare two very different chips.
Petey –
as noticed by the sony ericsson collaboration perhaps?
JJ says: “iPod/iTunes + PS3 makes no sense. It cannibalizes Apple’s Mac sales (esp. the Mini) and Sony’s Walkman and music sales.”
How does this deal cannibalize Mac sales? Also, who’s to say you couldn’t use a Sony Network Walkman OR an Apple iPod?
I guess we’ll see this with the 3GHz Power Macs in 2026 …
Itunes is just a front end for Quicktime 7. Quicktime 7 plays music but also forms the basis for h.264. Making HD video possible. And it looks great in Tiger.
Imagine if you will a PS3 with an ITMS on it. I can download HD movies like say Spiderman from Apple’s ITMS in HD. Store it on my ps3 drive. When I want to go over to my friends house I transfer it to my iPod. Hook up my pod to their ps3 and watch the movie.
Hell with a PS3, Quicktime 7, and broadband you could have an on demand TV channel. Sony could have an upcoming game channel and stream it across the net. trailers, upcoming movies. The could put on little parties like Microsofts and put the whole half hour on their site for your streaming convenience.
PS what are the odds of Jobs showing up at E3? I’d say highly likely.
What’s the market share right now for Apple computers? 3% compared to Windows 96%? Or does Apple have even less than 3%? Anyone know??
macnut222 wrote:
“How does this deal cannibalize Mac sales?”
Simple. Apple wants to be everyone’s “digital hub”, and every PS3 sold will be lost ground for Apple. Now, iPod/iTunes on PS3 would be a calculated gamble, much like iPod/iTunes for Windows. But in business you don’t cede ground for anything; obviously Apple should use the iPod to help Apple, not to help Sony boost PS3 sales.
“Also, who’s to say you couldn’t use a Sony Network Walkman OR an Apple iPod?”
Nobody of course. But why would Sony undercut their own player by supporting iPod? Maybe there’s something in the Apple/iPod-Sony/Walkman-PS3 algebra I’m not seeing. But eventually the balance will tip one way or another, and I wouldn’t want to be the one who’s product is helping the other guy and giving me little in return. I’d rather leverage my own wares than chance being proven a sucker down the line.
Well whatever they’re up to i wish they’d pull their fingers out so I don’t have to buy an xbox. Incidentally, looking at the new xbox specs, wouldn’t a top end pc do the some job ?
These chips were custom made by IBM for Microsoft.
I think there was an exclusivity contract clause between IBM/Microsoft for the 3Ghz speed chips
—
you mean the chips that don’t exist yet? the reason ms is using powermac g5s to emu xbox360 is cuz the chips don’t exist
Well of course all this is rumour but as we are all having fun.
1) IBM get out of pc’s
2) IBM, Sony producing the cell processor
3) Microsoft deserts Intel for as close as it can get to a cell chip to compete with above in media.
4) Where does Apple figure in all this
The xbox is a Trojan horse for a new pc platform, one that Microsoft owns the hardware as well as the software crown jewels. hey we all know its jealous of Apple and now not a little scared too – that’s paranoia for you.
Cell and PS3 is an attempt to make a new platform that isn’t pc and change the rules of the game. Do you8 really think that this is purely a games and related media device only?
Both of the above would become over time multi media centred computer platforms leveraging the former to become the established latter.
If any of the above is true not only would Sony (and indeed IBM) want partners it would need them and in all areas. Indeed Microsoft cosying up to IBM would be its usual attempts to divide and conquer – or at worst to retain some influence on one of the prime partners who just happen to need as much business for its chip business as it can get.
There would be plenty of room for Sony, Apple and indeed others to take part in this whole new environment. Not only are they defending their own established amrkets they are actually undermining Wintels. It would all be centred around HD and H264 and therefore Quicktime. If that doesn’t win out and become the de facto standard in Sony’s electronics backyard then WMA etc will, and Sony won’t have real control over most of its own hardware business sectors. Hey as a music and film company even those businesses would be subservient to MS’s technology to reach its own public.
Fear of losing one’s independence is a real eye opener and impetus for a proud company like Sony. Being on a par with the low costs Chinese in thier own prime business would effectively destroy the company over time, it has to be innovative to survive just like Apple and its ilk. As a small bit player in computers that might be acceptable (though its mediocre position with relatively good products there must still hurt it) but in media devices this would effectively undermine its whole position in this sector and make it little more than an upmarket Dell to Microsoft’s, well Microsoft actually. Tell you what if Apple and Sony and others aren’t making moves to work together they are totally raving bonkers. Apple to retain its iPod and general media successes will have to compromise with the likes of Sony especially while it is still hot) and indeed companies like Sony will have to compromise with Apple or simply join the existing legions of MS banana republics and help the latter change from a increasingly falable pc software monolith into a new widespread media monolith of even greater depth and control over our lives. After that the only thing that will stop them will be the Chinese and they don’t make particularly convincing white knights.
The PS3 without serious music player support could allow xbox to take the lead. The xbox with leveraged and integrated music and video player support using MS ‘standards’ would be capable of destroying the prominent position of both rivals. While combining their interests and making minor compromises in their own products Apple and Sony woulkd not only see off this particular MS hegemony but give a firm base to change the whole media/computer future.
While this may be a bogus rumor, it is wrong to say that this kind of partnership can’t happen. Apple has used IBM harddrives in many models of Macs going back to the SE/30 (1987) and even the earlier Apple computers used many parts made by such competitors as Texas Instraments, IBM, and Hewlet Packard all of which were competing against Apple at the time. No technology company can live in a bubble.
I think this rumor has legs.
The win for Apple – it spreads its’ reach with iTMS and other Apple technologies; it gets to “further” spread its brand into the home (it already has the hype); if games are written for the PS3 – hopefully this will automatically have high quality games for the Mac platform (big win for Mac). And prevent MS from doing an end run around Apple (remember the general public doesn’t really know, understand the myth MS has created is false- the public will believe the hype and go for MS); plus it would hurt MS sales of 360x. IMHO: I think Apple will/can sell more Mac’s in the process (more press = more sales).
The win for Sony – most importantly it uses the hype from Apple to maintain it’s lead in the game field (Apple is know for the best graphics); it picks up the cool factor for it gaming/home entertainment device (note: this also helps Apple, since they get recognition and can learn from Sony’s success/mistakes). They have already failed with their version of mp3 player, this prevents them form losing any meaningful presence in music. Helps it jump in front of all competitors in the PR clutter.
<a >http://www.mobilegamefaqs.com/newsstory.php?id=121</a>
stuff listing Apple/Sony benefits from partnership, also prior history of failed attempts in the past
In searching for information on how to share my music to a PS3 for playback in the parlor from a computer humming in a closet or bedroom, yet on the same network, I came up with two results. One was this page, telling me that for sure it’s not yet done, and may never be done, but there’s rumors that it will be done.
My thesis is as follows: If sony and apple don’t work together and make this readily available “out-of-the-box”, then the hacker community where Jobs and Woz came from in inventing their first home computer, and playing with putting pictures on a TV before anyone ever thought to hook up a computer to a screen, and inventing the mouse, and all of this. They will do it for them.
Either jump on board and profit from the experience, or get swept away like Hoover Dam bursting on your face.
The reason I say this is the second page I found while searching for information on running software on the PS3 or modifying my existing mac system to host the music in a way that the PS3 can receive without modification.
There is a cluster in some university someplace of EIGHT PS3’s which are doing SUPERCOMPUTING processing for physics theorists (on the subject of gravity waves emanating from black holes actually) First of all, it only takes eight of these machines to make a super computer. Second of all they run LINUX on these machines, custom compilers, and whatever else. The software is easily modifiable, and with that fact in place, it’s only a matter of time before someone in his basement figures out how to make it read the iTunes shared music library, and Limewire too.