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The iPad as a shopping venue
Black Friday online shopping uncovered a surprising theme -- the iPad is a popular tool for browsing and buying products on the Internet. Darcy Travlos at Forbes took a look at the data and found some tidbits that point to an interesting conclusion; "e-commerce may become the killer app for the iPad." As Travlos points out, it's not that there are more iPads out there than any other tablet -- iPads only have a slight edge in installed base at 52 percent of the market share to 48 percent for Android tablets. But that 52 percent of installed base accounts for 88.3 percent of all of the tablet online shopping. Travlos speculates that the screen size of the iPad has a lot going for it, in particular in terms of watching video ads that are very effective on tablets. She mentions that online shopping is extremely popular during leisure hours, and that "if shoppers arrive through iPads, retailers and advertisers will notice and allocate resources appropriately. This is just one more area where Apple is building up an ecosystem around creating delightful user experiences."
Age of Wushu founder describes Hollywood movie plans
Age of Wushu is a game that has generated a fair bit of excitement among the Massively staff members. The martial arts MMO won our Most Anticipated Project award from E3 this year and we continue to nod approvingly at each new content reveal. GamerHubTV caught up with Snail Games' CEO and Founder, Shi Hai, for a video interview detailing everything from the origins of Snail Games, the involvement of Jet Li, and the possibility of an international film based on the game. You can watch the two-part video interview after the cut below, and check out the entire transcription over at Forbes.
Daily Update for October 2, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
EA goes 100% online with gaming
From now on, don't expect to see EA coming out with single-player offline titles, because there won't be any. EA Labels President Frank Gibeau said that the company is full-on embracing cloud gaming and online interaction: "I have not green lit one game to be developed as a single player experience. Today, all of our games include online applications and digital services that make them live 24/7/365." Forbes speculates that this approach might be a boon to MMO players, who might witness a movement toward more integrated services. EA isn't looking to turn all of its titles into MMOs, however, but is definitely adding multiplayer components and more social interaction to them going forward. Gibeau claims that this is what the players are demanding. "People want to access games anytime and anywhere, they want to connect with friends, and they want to be recognized across multiple devices," he said. "Cloud gaming is going to make it easier to step over walled gardens."
ArenaNet dev says Guild Wars 2's business model will result in a more diverse playerbase
Guild Wars 2 Lead Producer Chris Whiteside has a pretty straight-forward opinion of MMO business models: He says that subscriptions are "a huge barrier to entry." He says that Guild Wars 2's model, which has no subscription but does charge a one-time fee for the client, each campaign, and optional microtransactions, is far more accessible to gamers. Whiteside also thinks that free models have an added benefit for players: "The interesting and ironic thing about it is when you do more free-to-play games, it becomes more competitive, which is even better for the consumer." ArenaNet expects a more diverse playerbase due to its business model, Whiteside said. He also addressed the difficulty of balancing an MMO for both newcomers to the genre and longtime vets: "As an industry, we could all do a better job of teaching the player how to get to the point where these more complex systems are in the game and then having more enjoyment by understanding what they are, rather than kind of feeling like an outsider."
Forbes: Activision's dependence on declining WoW subs 'potential for a catastrophic situation'
With the recent news of World of Warcraft's struggling subscription numbers fresh on our minds, Forbes investigated WoW's primary shareholder and predicted trouble on the horizon for investors. "After looking into Activision Blizzard, Inc., we discovered an amazing looking company that is unfortunately almost completely sustained by the revenue it reaps from one game, World of Warcraft," the authors notes. "When considering that the same company has a 60% majority shareholder (Vivendi) looking to sell its shares in the company you get the potential for a catastrophic situation." Because Vivendi is having difficulty unloading Activision, Forbes says that any sharp decline in World of Warcraft's revenue will drag down Vivendi's stock severely. The authors also note that the company will suffer from the launch of Guild Wars 2: "The bottom line here is that gamers like to start on level playing fields. Gamers love to save money. Gamers are always in a frantic rush to play superior games. These three factors are the main reasons why Guild Wars 2 will win over market share from WoW." [Thanks to Mike for the tip!]
Pirate101 co-creator: 'Our goal is to become the Pixar of online gaming'
KingsIsle Entertainment Vice President J. Todd Coleman sat down with Forbes to give some insight into the development process of the studio's upcoming Pirate101 -- and how the studio plans to expand its empire. "We have more plans for the 101 universe," Coleman said, "but we're also looking to expand beyond it with other properties. Our ultimate goal, to summarize it easily, is to become the Pixar of the online gaming space." Coleman went into the challenges of developing a title set in the same universe but with a different thematic bent and combat system. He also said that the Pirate101 team is twice the size of Wizard101's, mostly because the studio's follow-up MMO is bound to be compared with its eight-years-in-development predecessor. Competitors might want to think twice about taking KingsIsle on, however. Coleman notes that many have tried and failed, such as LEGO Universe. "Realistically, if you want to compete with Wizard101 at this point, you're looking at an investment of at least 5 to 6 years and well over $100 million in total cost," he said.
AAPL declines again, S&P and Nasdaq see an impact
When it comes to stocks, Apple is an influencer and any changes in its stock price will affect US stock indexes. That's what happened on Monday when the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged and the NASDAQ and S&P fell because of Apple, says a report in Forbes. The NASDAQ and S&P both include Apple, and the company's five day decline is dragging the two indexes down. Apple's stock is now sitting at US$580.13, a 4.2 percent decline from its previous high of $610.28.
Yep, Gabe Newell is a billionaire
Gabe Newell has an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion, ranking 854th of the 1,226 billionaires in the world. Normally a video game exec being ranked 854th in something wouldn't matter much, but when that rank is in the "these people have at least one billion dollars" list, even the losers are news. Newell owns more than 50 percent of Valve, which has an estimated enterprise value of $3 billion -- conservatively -- meaning Newell is actually probably worth more than $1.5 billion.If Valve begins a Kickstarter campaign for Half-Life, Portal or Left 4 Dead 3 any time soon, perhaps then outrage would be warranted.Yeah.
Review: 'The Zen of Steve Jobs' graphic novel
I just took ten minutes (hey, it's a comic book) and read Caleb Melby and Jess3's The Zen of Steve Jobs graphic novel and I think anyone who is a fan of comic books or Steve Jobs is going to like it. As I told you in September, the 60-page graphic novel is a re-imagining of Steve Jobs' life during the mid-1980s after he left Apple and before he founded NeXT. Specifically, it deals with Jobs' relationship with Kobun Chino Otogawa, a Zen Buddhist priest (who also married Jobs and his wife, Laurene Powell). The writer, Caleb Melby, makes it clear from the get go that the graphic novel is not fact. He combines existing Jobs/Kobun interviews and biographies with his own interviews of several Kobun students who were contemporaries of Jobs. The result, enhanced with Melby's imagination is a really interesting story. In the graphic novel, Jobs and Kobun clearly have a Luke Skywalker/Yoda thing going on (although Jobs is more of a jerk to Kobun than Luke was to Yoda). As the story progresses, the reader is treated to flashbacks and flashforwards of how the Buddhist principle of Ma eventually affected Apple's designs after Steve's return. Speaking of style, Jess3's art is beautiful -- a combination of manga and western styles with clean lines and sweeping, single-color tones. While this graphic novel is about Steve Jobs, Kobun is the most interesting character. His real-life death eerily mirrored the fictional Joseph Knecht's death in Hermann Hesse's The Glass Bead Game almost exactly, and Melby depicted that well (readers of both will probably note the similarities between the two before they even finish Zen). The Zen of Steve Jobs finishes with some extras, like a fascinating afterword from the author about why he brought Steve Job's to life in comic book form, a mini-biography of Kobun and some interesting behind-the-scenes looks as to how the project was created. The Zen of Steve Jobs is available in print from Amazon (US$10.28) or on the iBookstore ($9.99).
Zynga stock falters, holds on first day of trading
Zynga stock finally roared out of the gate and on to the trading floor yesterday at $10 a share, but investors weren't hugely impressed with the social gaming company. The stock started up a dollar at $11, and then dropped back down two, and then thirty, and then fifty cents during the day, leveling off at $9.50, which Forbes says was thanks mostly to "a stabilizing bid by Zynga's underwriters," which means Zynga's investors stepped in and bought up enough stock to keep the price up. So what happened? Shortly put, Zynga's stock wasn't really worth what it was priced out at. An initial public offering is designed to be priced a little low, in order to drum up demand for a company's stock from the public (not to mention raise some money). But Zynga went high and, as a result, didn't quite get the graph it wanted today. They didn't sell the FarmVille, so to speak -- ZNGA will likely be trading fine on Monday (and $9.50 is fine for the highly competitive gaming industry; THQ is sitting down at 75 cents right now). But Zynga's hype phase appears to be over. Now the company needs to prove it can sell more than just cow clickers.
Former Compaq CEO now loves his Mac
Forbes is reporting a fun story about former Compaq CEO Ben Rosen. Seems Steve Jobs and Rosen met in 1999, and Jobs tried to convince Rosen, then at Compaq, to license the Mac OS. It never happened, and Steve reportedly had second thoughts about it all anyway. Fast forward to 2007. Rosen writes Jobs a letter that says in part: "Well, after a 20-plus year interlude with that other OS (necessitated by my Compaq involvement), I thought you'd be pleased to know that for the last few years I've returned to my roots. I'm once again an avid Apple user and evangelist. Imagine, Ben Rosen, former Compaq Chairman, now a Mac enthusiast!" Then Jobs replied: "Sorry for my delayed reply - I was on a much needed family vacation for the past three weeks. Wow - this news makes my day! I'm glad to hear it. I hope you like what we've done with the Mac. I'm biased, of course, but I think its light years ahead of Windows." You can read more Ben Rosen memories of Steve Jobs at his blog. Written, no doubt, on his trusty Mac.
Forbes: Apple tried to buy Dropbox
When we began hearing about Apple's iCloud, a lot of the TUAW staffers thought the same thing -- why doesn't Apple just buy Dropbox? After all, it works the way that a lot of Apple fans think cloud storage should intuitively work. Well, a story by Forbes staffer Victoria Barret spills the beans on a story we never knew about until now: Apple did try to buy Dropbox in late 2009. There's a great story that will be in the November 7 issue of Forbes talking about the startup story of the latest Silicon Valley success, and how in December 2009 Steve Jobs invited Dropbox co-founders Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi to a meeting in Cupertino. Jobs made a pitch to buy the company, which Houston promptly nixed. Jobs then "told them he was going after their market," while Houston "peppered him with questions." We all know the outcome, with iCloud having gone live this last week as a would-be competitor to Dropbox. But Dropbox has done rather well, with 50 million users, one new user signing up each second, and revenues expected to hit $240 million for the year despite the fact that 96% of users don't pay a thing for the service. The company was recently valued at $4 billion, and raised $250 million in capital to grow Dropbox into an Internet powerhouse. Houston's not too worried about the competition from iCloud and Google's rumored Drive product. The company recently signed an agreement with HTC to add Dropbox as the default cloud storage service for its Android phones, is planning on signing up six more phone firms soon, and is looking at working with PC and TV makers next. We'll see what happens over the next few years with Dropbox, and whether or not Houston's decision to turn down Jobs in 2009 was a smart move or regrettable choice. Check out the video below for a taste of the Forbes article on Dropbox and the Apple connection.
Mark Jacobs returns to the gaming industry with City State Entertainment
If you've been around the MMO scene for a while, you'll remember Mark Jacobs as the co-founder of Mythic Entertainment and the force behind Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer Online. He's been out of the gaming industry since his departure from EA, but according to an exclusive interview with Forbes.com, he's back with a new company. "Jacobs revealed that his new company is called City State Entertainment, and [...] the company aims to create games for the mobile, tablet and social networking space," says Forbes.com's Tracey John. Mark tells Forbes that social game development allows for a faster development cycle and lower costs, which equals more freedom to simply have fun making games. "We don't have to worry if the hardcore gamers are going to get incredibly upset because we're doing something a certain way. We don't have to worry if our game is going to sell another 20 copies. We're just looking to make fun, enjoyable games." Check out the full interview at Forbes.com
Android Network Toolkit lets you exploit local machines at the push of a button
Defcon 2011 is in full hacking swing, and Itzhak Avraham -- "Zuk" for short -- and his company Zimperium have unveiled the Android Network Toolkit for easy hacking on the go. Need to find vulnerabilities on devices using nearby networks? The app, dubbed "Anti" for short, allows you to simply push a button to do things like search a WiFi network for potential targets, or even take control of a PC trojan-style. To do this, it seeks out weak spots in older software using known exploits, which means you may want to upgrade before hitting up public WiFi. According to Forbes, it's much like Firesheep, and Zuk refers to Anti as a "penetration tool for the masses." Apparently, his end-goal is to simplify "advanced" hacking and put it within pocket's reach, but he also hopes it'll be used mostly for good. Anti should be available via the Android Market this week for free, alongside a $10 "corporate upgrade." Consider yourself warned.
Forbes profiles Comex, the hacker behind JailbreakMe
The Apple world knows him as Comex, the person who developed JailbreakMe to let iPhone users quickly and easily jailbreak their devices. Now Forbes has outed Comex in a preview of an article that will be published in the magazine later this week. Comex is really Nicholas Allegra, a 19 year old student on leave from Brown University who lives with his parents in Chappaqua, NY -- not too far away from IBM's facilities in Armonk. Allegra is looking for an internship, and hopefully now that the world knows who he is, he'll be able to get a job with Apple or another electronics or Internet firm. Forbes writer Andy Greenberg cites security expert Dino Dai Zovi as comparing jailbreaking to "writing a ransom note out of magazine clippings," then goes on to say that last year's JailbreakMe 2 was more akin to "requiring an attacker to assemble a note out of a random magazine he's never read before, in the dark." Dai Zovi, co-author of the Mac Hacker's Handbook, notes that the level of sophistication in JailbreakMe is on a par with Stuxnet, the state-sponsored worm designed to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. He says that Allegra is probably "five years ahead" of the hackers who create persistent attacks on government and industrial targets. For all of his hacking skills, Allegra refers to himself as simply an "Apple fanboy" who likes the challenges of finding -- and exploiting -- security issues in iOS. Let's hope that Apple offers him a full-time job soon.
Forbes: China growth will propel AAPL shares to $547 in the next nine months
Eric Jackson at Forbes has written a piece with some astounding numbers about Apple's business in China. Most impressively, Jackson thinks that because of Apple's China business, Apple shares will hit $547 per share by January 2012, which is only nine months away. That's an impressive upswing from AAPL's closing price of $348.51 yesterday. Jackson opines that Apple's four current Chinese Apple stores bring in US$1.3 billion per year, per store. With Apple set to open as many as 25 retail stores in China, and the Chinese "gaga for Apple," that means Apple's Chinese retail stores alone could draw in another US$32bn a year for the company. That's not counting iPhone sales through carrier stores, Apple's online China store or Cybermart, Apple's largest third-party retailer (owned by Foxconn). Cybermart has only 34 retail outlets today, but it's planning on building up to 500 locations in the future, each with its own special Apple Shop within the store (much like Best Buy's Apple Shop store-within-a-stores). With the second largest economy on the planet, it's no wonder that Jackson sees China as key to Apple's future growth. And it's likely that China will propel Apple to its first $100bn+ net revenue fiscal year ever when Apple's fiscal year ends in September. Disclaimer: The author holds a position in AAPL. TUAW does not provide investment advice; consult an expert before buying or selling equities.
Apple exchanges iPads for iPad 2 for Rutgers class
An Apple retail store in New Jersey has taken back an order of original iPads and replaced them with iPad 2 units for a class at Rutgers' Center for Management Development, according to Forbes. In a move bound to annoy everyone who bought an iPad just before the iPad 2 was released and found that it was too late to return it, Apple isn't even charging a restocking fee even though the iPads had already been customized. The class was scheduled to start shortly before the iPad 2's release date on March 11, so the school had gone ahead and purchased the tablets (the students actually pay for them and keep them after the class is over). The article doesn't say exactly how this deal was arranged, but it's safe to say that someone at Rutgers followed my mom's perennial advice, "If you don't ask, the answer is no," and made a phone call to the local Apple Store. From the article, it is clear that Rutgers has a regular cycle of classes that use the iPads, which no doubt made it a little easier for Apple to show such extra flexibility. Of course, no good deed goes unpunished, so I'm sure there will be a whole host of people complaining that they didn't get the same offer. If you did happen to order an iPad recently, it's definitely worth a visit to your local Apple Store or a polite call to Apple support. Just remember, you're not a university sending tens of thousands of recurring dollars to Apple, so don't be too surprised if you don't get the same deal. [via The MacObserver]
Analyst: iPhone mini could increase Apple's market reach by 6X, revenue 2.5X
Analyst Toni Sacconaghi of Bernstein Research predicts Apple could increase its addressable handset market by 6X in unit volume and 2.5X in revenue with the launch of a smaller, less expensive iPhone model, says Forbes. These projected numbers come from his analysis of handset market share and Apple's current market reach. Sacconaghi suggests Apple misses 60 percent of the handset market with its current strategy that limits distribution to select carriers and sells the iPhone at a relatively high price point. Sacconaghi predicts Apple could take two approaches with the cheap iPhone. In one scenario, Apple would produce the iPhone mini, a scaled-down version of the iPhone that would offer a less robust internet and App experience. The handset would be less data-intensive and would debut with a low-cost data plan that costs $15 or less per month. The other option would be to sell an "iPhone touch," which would be an iPhone without a data plan. This hypothetical beastie would have all the capabilities of the iPod touch plus voice calling, but no cellular data. 3G connectivity would be available but optional, a scenario that would let users rely on Wi-Fi for all their data needs. [It's not clear from the Forbes excerpt of the report if Sacconaghi is explicitly saying that hardware-wise, an "iPhone touch" is identical to an iPhone -- Apple would need to include all the 3G radio chips, antenna and corresponding battery power to handle 3G data if it's a customer-selectable option. --Ed.] Sacconaghi suggests that both of these handsets could debut with retail prices close to or less than $149. if Apple could capture even 5 percent of its missed market share with a cheap iPhone, the Cupertino company could see a minimum annual profit boost of $4.50 a share. [Another bit of confusion here; it's not at all clear that Toni S. is considering the unsubsidized price of the current iPhone, which starts at $599 and goes up from there. How we get from that price down to $149 without the full support of a carrier subsidy -- harder to justify without a revenue-rich data plan attached to the phone contract -- is not really clear. --Ed.] While Sacconaghi expects Apple will make this move to a less expensive model, he believes the chance of a summer launch is low. The analyst points out that Apple's iPhone 4 supply is still constrained, and the manufacturer would not want to steal the thunder from the launch of the iPhone 5 expected in June. If Apple were to pursue this low-cost option for the iPhone, perhaps a fall launch tied into its annual iPod refresh might be a more realistic possibility. Thoughts anyone?
Valve's Gabe Newell discusses company profitability, and getting new eyes
You probably don't need company head Gabe Newell to tell you -- as he did Forbes in a recent profile -- that Valve is "tremendously profitable." But did you know that it's "more profitable than Google or Apple" (per employee)? And did you know that Newell has crazy robot eyes? Okay, okay, he actually got cornea implants instead of "robot eyes," per se -- just as interesting, however, is Newell's post-surgery statement. "Not only could I see again, but I could see better than I ever had before." As Newell suffers from Fuchs Dystrophy, his corneas were slowly degrading before correction. "I felt like I was in a fantasy story. It reminded me of how fast the future is coming at us and from what unexpected directions." Keeping his eyes on the money, Newell declined to offer any hard numbers as to his company's financial success, though he admitted that "per employee, Valve is more profitable than Google and Apple." To put some context on that, Valve's 250-person company has an estimated value of $2 billion to $4 billion (approximately $8 million to $16 million profit earned per employee), while Apple's 49,400 employees pull in roughly $6.68 million each, and Google's 24,400 earn the company around $8.19 million apiece. [Note: statistics based on current market valuations of Apple and Google, combined with company-provided employee numbers, here and here].
