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December 6, 2006

speculation

An Apple iToy?

Posted Dec. 6, ’06, 10:51 AM PT by Pat Nakajima
Category | Apple » Speculation

iToyHere’s how you too can be an expert analyst on Apple Computer:

  1. Establish credibility by regurgitating the painfully obvious (e.g. “Apple needs to to release Leopard; it makes good business sense.)
  2. Once credible, begin doing the exact opposite: start spewing absolute nonsense. If you look around the room and see anything with wires that Apple doesn’t make, strap an “i” to the front of it and email the resulting word to Mac Rumors and AppleInsider. They’ll know what to do with it.
  3. Watch the word you created fly around the Mac blogosphere like a horsefly on speed. Then start looking around the room again.
What brought on this helpful guide? Rumors, in more than one place that should probably know better, indicating Apple’s next move after the iPhone (you know, the move they haven’t taken yet) is into the gaming realm.

Sure. Why not? Just because Apple has shown absolutely no interest in gaming in ages (Mahjong doesn’t count), the market is already obscenely crowded and competitive, and it’s a domain in which small market share does you no favors, doesn’t mean Apple shouldn’t, couldn’t, or wouldn’t do such a thing. I know that to play chess, you must think several moves into the future, but it seems to me that some people are using a completely different board.


4 Comments

Moe said:

You forgot one number:

4. ...Profit!

Seriously though, it amazes me that analysts can make their living pulling proclamations out of their posteriors and keep making a living despite being repeatedly and sometimes hilariously wrong.

December 6, 2006 11:35 AM
Brant Sears said:

There were some reports recently that Apple has hired some folks from the world of video games.

It is silly to conclude from this that Apple will create a video game console.

I would think that it simply means that Apple is looking at barriers to adoption in the consumer space. The biggest one that people cite is gaming. Meaning that lots of people who would otherwise consider a Mac say "but it doesn't have all the games I want."

Does it actually surprise anyone that Apple would be looking at how the address this problem? And if you wanted to address this problem wouldn't you perhaps hire some folks from the video game industry to help?

It could mean a lot of things. Maybe Apple is working on a "simple list of 5 things we could do to make the Mac more attractive to game developers". Maybe Apple would consider making a few games in house that would be compelling and Mac only?

But, somehow I don't think they are resurrecting the Pippin.

December 6, 2006 1:03 PM
Erik said:

My partner worked for a company which specialises in producing analyst reports that are sold to corporations within a particular industry sector. (Pharmaceuticals, in this case.)

I was told that most of the analysts really didn't look too deeply into what they were analysing, and would re-use a lot of information that had been published before.

Business analysts, and stock analysts are hardly geniuses. They are just people who are being paid to provide a supposedly informed opinion to people with too much money and not enough time to study these things themselves.

Also, I was taught at school to always get my information from multiple sources, and preferably sources which were as close to the action as possible.

With that in mind, I always take anything an analyst says with a pinch of salt.

December 6, 2006 2:09 PM
Dave said:

Consider this story (John Gruber linked to it on 11/30).
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/061204ta_talk_surowiecki

That said, no way will Apple try to break into game consoles. Of course, that's what I would have said about portable media players five years ago. But there weren't three companies duking it out for supremacy of a very successful market, just a couple of companies that weren't doing such a good job selling crappy MP3 players. I don't see a parallel here.

December 6, 2006 2:39 PM

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