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Apple's Reinvention as a Services Company Starts for Real Monday

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Re: Apple's Reinvention as a Services Company Starts for Real Monday

#61

Post by deltron3030 »

seanwilson wrote: post #20
tyfon wrote: post #10

> The company would collect these monthly fees, then divide up the revenue between developers based on how much time users spend playing their games Sounds terrible for short indie games and good for long grindy games. That's not a future I want for my gaming. Not that I am an apple customer in the first place but hopefully this won't affect what is delivered on the other platforms.

> Sounds terrible for short indie games and good for long grindy games. What would be a good system to determine a fair amount between games when a user is paying a fixed amount per month for all games? You could ask for ratings (e.g. overall, originality) but these will be a lot more nuanced than time spent. You could ask users what split between games they think is fair (feels like a lot to ask especially if you're…

>What would be a good system to determine a fair amount between games when a user is paying a fixed amount per month for all games?

It could be made relative to the time that needs to be spent to complete the game, and maybe a different category for open ended and multiplayer games.

Treating all games equal would be bad design, because "game" is often only the most generic category they share, they're digital experiences and should be treated as such.

Re: Apple's Reinvention as a Services Company Starts for Real Monday

#63

Post by kbenson »

awad wrote: post #26
kbenson wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That depends on whether you think Netflix has successfully transitioned into a network. They release a huge amount of original content now. If I had any apple devices , I would be more likely to drop HBONOW or Hulu than Netflix, and since I pay for all three I'm sort of the target audience (except for the whole no iPhone/iPad thing, which is also probably something they should think about).

Anecdote of one: I have all three as well. As the days go by, I find myself questioning if Netflix is still worth it as I'm not necessarily a big fan of a lot of their original content and think HBO seems to do a better job in licensing the movies I'm interested in (to say nothing of their amazing original content). I think at this point I only keep Netflix around out of habit as it's something I share with family an…

HBO has some big-ticket items, but Netflix is more consistent in dropping new series for me to try. It's still my go-to place for content since there's more than I have time to watch. I just looked up their list of original content[1] for refresh my mind, and quite a few were extremely good in my opinion.

- House of Cards: I only got a little into the second season before I got busy, but what I saw was high quality and interesting.

- Orange is the new Black: My wife still loves this series

- Stranger Things: An honest to god phenomenon. The second season was weaker IMO, but I'm not sure how it could be as good as the first. That's a high bar to hit.

- The Crown: I caught a lot of it as my wife watched. Pretty good, even if a blond Doctor Who was somewhat distracting.

- A Series of Unfortunate Events: The kids liked this, as some of them are going through the books.

- Altered Carbon: Refreshingly good science fiction. Main character casting a little odd, since it's more obvious now than it was when I was younger how odd and slightly off-putting it is to cast someone with the physique of Arnold Schwarzenegger as a science fiction lead. At the same time, it's now fitting (or a trope) because of all the science fiction he helmed in the 1990's.

- Lost in Space: Interesting, but ultimately spoiled slightly by the contrived plot. Better writing and this would have been extremely good rather than worth watching, but slightly disappointing.

- The Haunting: A nice interweaving of stories, and creepy series. I liked the ending. I have friends who didn't.

That's just from the drama section of the list. There's plenty in the other sections too, such as Maniac and Russian Dolls which I watched recently that were good, and documentary section has a bunch of good things I've seen as well. Some of he Marvel series' were pretty good too (season one of Jessica Jones was excellent on so many levels).

That's a small fraction of what they released. Looking at the list now, there's no way I would cancel Netflix before Hulu, and probably HBO also. There's things I want to watch on those (for different reasons), but now that I examine it, it's clear that I use and value what Netflix is giving me way more than the other two.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_original_programs_dist...

Re: Apple's Reinvention as a Services Company Starts for Real Monday

#64

Post by kbenson »

ilovecaching wrote: post #16
kbenson wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That depends on whether you think Netflix has successfully transitioned into a network. They release a huge amount of original content now. If I had any apple devices , I would be more likely to drop HBONOW or Hulu than Netflix, and since I pay for all three I'm sort of the target audience (except for the whole no iPhone/iPad thing, which is also probably something they should think about).

A lot of my friends and family are ready to give up their Netflix subs. We've seen most of what interests us. Apple on the other hand has unlimited supplies of money and more power to make deals with content providers.

> We've seen most of what interests us.

What about all the original content?

Re: Apple's Reinvention as a Services Company Starts for Real Monday

#65

Post by stringgames »

nradov wrote: post #47
ksec wrote: post #19

I continue to wonder why they don't have or push iPhone as a Services ( The iPhone Upgrade Programme ) and continue to rely on mostly Carriers for Financing. By offering iPhone up to a 4 years terms and bundled with AppleCare+ Thief and Loss and iCloud Backup. With Optional Apple Music, Apple News Magazine, Apple TV and Apple Game. All paid via an Apple Branded Credit Card within Apple Pay backed by Goldman Sachs. Yo…

They could even bundle in a MacBook, iPad, and watch at a higher price tier so that the hard core Apple fans could pay a single monthly subscription fee and always have the latest model of every device.

I wonder if a subscription fee for hardware would appeal to businesses.

Re: Apple's Reinvention as a Services Company Starts for Real Monday

#67

Post by mrweasel »

whatshisface wrote: post #4

> This service will combine stories from newspapers, websites, and magazines into a new tab in the Apple News app on iPhones, iPads, and Macs. > Apple plans to charge about $10 a month. Is it just me, or is there no way this could possibly be worth it? Hacker News and Reddit already combine stories from newspapers and websites, and they do it for free. I have a hard time believing that a managed source selected from…

It could be, $10 a month for news, from a variety of source is a great deal. Back in the real world: There simply isn't going to be sufficient demand. People who will pay $10 per month already pay more for a source they picked.

What possible content can they put in there to attract people that already have newspaper subscriptions?

Re: Apple's Reinvention as a Services Company Starts for Real Monday

#68

Post by drivingmenuts »

tyfon wrote: post #10

> The company would collect these monthly fees, then divide up the revenue between developers based on how much time users spend playing their games Sounds terrible for short indie games and good for long grindy games. That's not a future I want for my gaming. Not that I am an apple customer in the first place but hopefully this won't affect what is delivered on the other platforms.

Most of the long, grindy AAA games are on Windows only, so really, not much worries there.

I have yet to see a game listed in the App Store that wasn't also on Steam, so I'm not worried about that either.

Apple may be good at many things, but games is not one of them. There's not enough bang for your buck on the Mac platform when it comes to gaming and you can't easily and cheaply mix-n-match your hardware like you can with Windows.

I love Mac for everything else, but if I going to seriously game, I will buy a Windows box and use it for that only (well, and running Linux in a VM - for reasons).

Re: Apple's Reinvention as a Services Company Starts for Real Monday

#69

Post by on_and_off »

subdane wrote: post #33

If Apple's going to be a services company now, wouldn't it be great if they kept themselves honest (and their products great) by honoring a level playing field for the services they compete with e.g. Spotify? Imagine if services like iCloud, Pages and Mail were comparable to or better than the existing product landscape? Apple's been holding themselves to too low a standard for too long. Maps was a wakeup call for th…

They have no incentive to keep themselves honest.

I have worked on a music streaming service for a while and our iOS app was a big pain. We often had months long gaps where we were unable to get an update published.

The good thing about Google being this unfocused is that they are unable to do even think about doing the same and favor Play Music or whatever they are calling it now .. again, they are not strong on focus.

I kinda hope that at some point publishing an app will be considered an utility so it can't be so easily gamed by the platform owner.

Re: Apple's Reinvention as a Services Company Starts for Real Monday

#70

Post by mrweasel »

dfee wrote: post #23

I might replace my FT sub with this. Only one datapoint though. But I’ll sub day 1.

On the other hand there no way that I'd cancel my subscription to The Economists paper edition for a digital only solution.

I suppose I'm not the target audience for Apple. Reading the news is something I do away from digital device. It helps me practise focusing and it helps me to relax.

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