“Dude, do you work at Nintendo? Do you have a corner office at Sony’s offices in Minato, Tokyo? Good. Time to get up out of your chair, walk to the nearest fire alarm and yank it. Now, run screaming out of the building,” Brian Caulfield reports for Forbes.
“Because if what Apple announced today hasn’t woken you and your colleagues up, it’s time to have your executive assistant pencil ‘panic’ into your FranklinCovey day planner,” Caulfield reports.
“Here’s the news. Apple announced Monday that users have downloaded more than 2 billion apps through its App Store… Of the 85,000 applications available through the App Store, something like 80% are free. More than 21,000 of them are games,” Caulfield reports. “Worse, of the 100 most popular apps, a mere 7% cost money.”
“Want to build yet another skateboarding game? You’ll be crushed. If you want to survive, you’ve got to innovate. The result, you’ll find more flat-out weird games on the iPhone than anywhere else. Just look at Amateur Surgeon, Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, Zen Bound and I Am T-Pain,” Caulfield reports. “It’s Darwinism. It’s ruthless. It works.”
Caulfield reports, “The problem: If Nintendo and Sony try to compete with the App Store by loading up their nascent app store competitors, such as Nintendo’s DSiWare, with free offerings, they’ll choke off the revenue they built their videogame businesses around. That’s not a bug, that’s a feature. In other words: This isn’t an accident. This is Steve Jobs. The man who killed the Walkman. Time to panic.”
Full article here.
Anyone still need convincing ?
See Wally’s line in the third panel.
http://dilbert.com/fast/2003-02-22/
Reminds me of when McDonald’s used to keep count of burgers served on their signs.
Now the game royalty will join Burger King and Dairy Queen in watching their empires crumble…..
I download everything for free but good iPhone apps I will gladly pay for iPhone for liiiiiiiiiffffe!!
Apple nailed this formula perfectly. There are so many barriers for the competition, they can’t even play the same game.
First, you need to sell enough devices so that developers can make money. Apple took care of that during the iPhone’s first year, building off the success of iPod. And they threw in the iPod touch, to increase the compatible device count.
Second, you need to make the devices similar enough in specifications and interface so that one version of your app runs on all the devices “out there.” Imagine, the developer only needs to create (and test) one version of their app for all the tens of millions potential customers. That was obviously a key requirement for Apple in designing the three G’s of devices so far. Now, imagine the difference for Android and Windows Mobile, where the devices are (or will be) so varied in performance, hardware, and interface, that the developer will need to create multiple versions of each app, further fragmenting the already much smaller market. Not worth the effort will be the overwhelming conclusion.
Third, you need to have a well-tested, popular, and effectively-marketed channel for distributing these apps and collecting revenue (for the apps that are not free). Apple has operated the iTunes Store for years, and is now the largest music retailer in the world. The App Store is still a relatively small (but growing) “tack on” to the existing iTunes Store. For any Apple competitor, just creating the “app store” is a major NEW undertaking and often a show-stopping obstacle.
I could go on, but what’s the point…
Ballmer is not convinced. Hence the Zune HD ( Horribly Deficient )
Apple created the first practical home desktop computer (no launching into an argument about XEROX and PARC, etc. – just accept the statement with its “practical” qualifier at face value for the purposes of this discussion).
Apple created the first laptop (ie. truly portable) computer.
Now, they have created the first true handheld computer.
Three game-changing inventions that will (and have) shape history.
Are there any other successful, micropayment stores out there?
I’ll bet Brian “yanks it” quite a bit.
2 billion downloads, I like being a part of that stat.
@cuthbert.. sorry Apple didn’t create the first laptop. I had a couple before the first powerbook. But Apple DID define the layout that everyone has used for the last 20 years – keyboard at the back, wristrest at the front. Not one genius had thought of that before.
Just downloaded “Alive 4 Ever.” Awesome zombie killing game for 99 cents. Thanks Apple and Meridian (developer)!
Casual gaming on the iPhone is ok at best. I have three screens of games, and they are fun for the most part, but my DS gets way more play than my iPhone. Physical controller. That, and the nintendo ips
@jonk – You are right, here is a page to prove that Apple didn’t create the first laptop, they just perfected them.
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bllaptop.htm
Apple came out with a Macintosh “portable” computer that I actually used through work back in 1990, which pre-dated the Powerbook models. As a portable, it weighed a whopping 16 lbs., but at least I could lug it home!
…”Casual gaming on the iPhone is ok at best. (…) my DS gets way more play than my iPhone.
That’s precisely the point. Before iPod/iPhone, casual gamer had no place to go but DS and PSP. The two companies built their business model around casual gamers. Obviously, hard core gaming fans loved anything that came from Nintendo and Sony, so they took their portable gaming platforms as extensions to the consoles.
So now we have the ultimate platform for casual gamers. Which leaves Sony/Nintendo with a minuscule fraction of their former casual gamers’ market, which is now hard-core gamers. Their portable gaming platforms simply cannot be sustained on hard-core gamers.
The 2 billion downloads should be taken as the signal for panic at Sony/Nintendo.
wow, so many free app, but most are crap, sadly.
I’ll keep on supporting the DS for gaming.
My first “laptop” (circa 1980)
As ‘solid’ says, at least I could lug it home.
The first game I downloaded was ‘Flight Control’. Completely addicting – and it’s been upgraded several times, for free, with new airports. Now I don’t even balk at buying games. I cruise the store two or three times a week for little helpful or diverting things.
Add Audible, podcasts, and a built-in iPod, the iPhone is the most fun, useful gadget in the history of gadgets.
Now Apple should work on getting rid of that d#!m wire that I untangle 20 times a day.
The Kaypro and Osborne were Complete and PORTABLE computers, the Laptop should be able to sit on your LAP, Apple’s first truly Computer was the Apple IIc, on 1984 which at the with a small CRT monitor because the Provider had trouble in manufacture but shipped them latter. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_IIc
The Grid Compass (written GRiD by its manufacturer GRiD Systems Corporation) was arguably the first laptop computer, when the initial model, the 1101[3] was introduced in April 1982.
The computer was designed by British industrial designer Bill Moggridge in 1979, and first sold three years later.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_Compass
Apple’s first truly portable computer was the original 128k Mac.
Of course, your milage did vary, depending on the length of your extension cord.
I have three kids. Each has a nintendo DS and one has a PSP. All three have iPod touches. Even though the gameplay is better on their dedicated devices, they are not getting any use. They only brought their iPod touch devices on a cross country drive this year. Seems so easy for them to cough up a buck or two and get another game from iTunes, but they rarely wanted to save up to buy another DS or PSP title.
Puhhleese, gimme a break already.
If you know anything about the gaming world, both Sony and Nintendo’s portable systems have been declining for some time now. It has nothing to do with Apple. It’s just the inevitable downward trend that occurs when a market matures and reaches its saturation point.
@ leoavinci
But what Apple have done is to sell games to non-gamers who don’t want a dedicated gaming device.
That’s a much bigger market, of both people and units, than Sony or Nintendo were getting access to.
From the article: “This isn’t an accident. This is Steve Jobs. The man who killed the Walkman. Time to panic.”
If Apple had foreseen the impact they could make on games, then they would have made the iPod Touch long before thinking up the iPhone. Gaming was something of an unexpected break for Apple that popped up out of the App Store, then was reflected back into the iPod Touch. It has been an amazing couple of years and Apple have reacted well, but there was some element of serendipity in the success of gaming.
Hmmm what market do I want the consumer who doesn’t use my products often and expects them to be cheap or free or the ones that buy the product every month. That is the difference between casual gamers and people who game.
Since Apple has for years never had much of a gaming element to them it’s the irony, just like iPods. Their actual PC sales have not grown much and likely have grown due to two devices that have nothing to do with their initial core products.
Wii was a huge hit due to casual gamers jumping on it as they didn’t have to learn how to play and anyone could do it. But the attachment rate of games bought to system is the lowest of any system and Nintendo had to drop the price to get interest back as Sony and Microsoft is lowering their system prices which is a big factor in this generation. Not many people want to drop $500+ on a game system.
All systems have their own ecosystem which is for a gamer offers more then AppStore. Xbox Live is the gold standard and offers multiplayer match making, netflix, etc. Live, WiiWare and PSN all offer smaller developer content that is low priced and often very good quality.
No portable game is every going to compete with Call of Duty type experience – it’s just totally different gaming. Try ScribbleNaughts on the DS and find anything with that level on iPhone – it’s not there. There maybe some developers making strides but unless Apple releases the full API set to get into the guts on the hardware – the games will remain nice diversions when bored.
The funny thing is the gaming market likely had both. I have an iPhone (3rd one), Pre, Blackberry AS WELL 360, Wii, DS etc. The casual user who buys one platform and downloads some free games will get you 2 billion downloads but the profit you make off them is nothing compared to the thousands I spend a year.