Phil Harrison sees dominant Apple, biometric screens in the future
Edge Online polled Phil Harrison, formerly of Sony and Atari, and now of Gaikai, about the future of gaming and technology in general. He very quickly identified one trend that it's hard not to see coming: continued growth for Apple's game platforms and the App Store. "At this trajectory, if you extrapolate the market-share gains that they are making, forward for ten years – if they carry on unrestrained in their growth, then there's a pretty good chance that Apple will be the games industry."
He had some predictions about the way games are presented, as well. Specifically, still on screens, but much fancier ones. Because of the declining cost of flat-panel displays, and the TV's place as a new "social hearth," those will continue to be in wide use, but in much higher resolutions and with both touch and biometric input. " I think there will be an industry that will appear out of 'personal biometrics' where as a human being you will take more control of your own health and well-being by getting data from your own body," he said. According to Harrison, private biometric data about the user's own lifestyle will be monetized by the game industry as soon as the healthcare industry delivers the technology. Vitality Sensors for all!
