Coffee Talk #232: Will Kinect for Xbox 360 Be a Mass Success?

Kinect for Xbox 360 is shipping in two weeks and my industry friends can’t stop talking about it. A lot of them are dismissing it, saying that it’s too expensive, the launch titles are crappy, few enthusiast gamers give a damn about motion controls, and it’s simply…

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, the Yankee bats finally waking up, the theory that Mark Teixeira was dragging the entire team down, or Intelligentsia’s Itzamna Guatemal Finca La Soledad, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Kinect for Xbox 360 is shipping in two weeks and my industry friends can’t stop talking about it. A lot of them are dismissing it, saying that it’s too expensive, the launch titles are crappy, few enthusiast gamers give a damn about motion controls, and it’s simply impossible for some people to make Kinect work in their living rooms. I don’t completely disagree with any of those things, but I have a feeling that Kinect is going to sell like crazy. Here are three reasons why:

  1. Kinect has generated more mainstream interest than many enthusiast gamers think. Whether it’s Kudo Tsunoda on Jimmy Fallon or Oprah giving away Kinect units to her audience, the system has gotten ample mainstream attention. Hell, RPadholic N8R’s son wants one and it’s not like he’s on the Internet reading gaming web sites all day (he’s not, right Nate?).
  2. The pre-orders have been strong. Microsoft has been suggesting that Kinect supply could be a problem for the holidays. Some people believe that this is artificial, but the pre-order numbers are there. I was shocked to see that Kinect is #13 on Amazon’s videogame sales charts. This is a $150 product that’s not out for two weeks!
  3. The biggest reason I think Kinect will sell is that Microsoft is throwing a large wad of money at it. Product director Aaron Greenburg mentioned that it will be backed by hundreds of millions of marketing dollars. The word on the street is that between Kinect and Windows Phone 7, Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division will spend $1-billion this holiday season. The sheer amount of marketing should result in hefty sales.

Keep in mind that I’m saying all of this as someone that’s mostly uninterested in Kinect games (of which there are currently two I’m interested in). Most of my industry friends don’t care about Kinect and most of the people I “see” on the Internet don’t care either, but I have a feeling that it’s going to put up some nice numbers this year.

What do you think? Will Kinect be a mass success? Or will the hundreds of millions of marketing dollars be a waste of money?

Apple’s Mac App Store Will Be a Huge Game Changer

At its “Back to the Mac” press conference, Apple unveiled the Mac App Store for the current Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) and the upcoming Lion (OS X 10.7) operating systems. The Mac App Store replicates the simple experience of purchasing apps for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch devices. It also offers the 70/30 split between free apps and paid apps, as well as developer revenue and Apple’s cut. Here’s more info from the press release:

The Mac App Store brings the revolutionary App Store experience to OS X, making discovering, installing and updating Mac apps easier than ever. Like on iPad, you purchase apps using your iTunes account and they download and install in just one step. App updates are delivered directly through the Mac App Store, so it’s easy to keep all of your apps up to date. The Mac App Store will be available for Snow Leopard within 90 days and will be included in Lion when it ships next summer.

I’ve been thinking about the Mac App Store all day (even while watching the Yankees beat the crap out of the Rangers). My initial thought was, “This is going to be frickin’ huge!” After digesting the information for several hours I have come to the conclusion that this is going to be frickin’ huge!

From Apple’s perspective, this is an ingenious way to trap customers into its walled garden. For consumers, the convenience of buying apps in a simple and straightforward way is brilliant. The apps can be used across multiple machines, which is great for people with multiple Macs. I’m sure Apple feels that once people invest in the ecosystem, it will be harder for them to leave; it’s similar to how many iPhone users are reluctant to switch platforms because they have bought so many iPhone apps. If people buy numerous Mac App Store apps, they’re less likely to switch to Windows (or Linux).

I also expect more developers than ever to flock to the Mac platform. Some analysts have stated that Mac OS accounts for 10 percent of the personal computers in North America and 20 percent globally. I believe that the Mac App Store will help grow the installed base.

I’m convinced that this is Apple’s most significant software and services product since the original iTunes. As you know, iTunes helped Apple dominate with the iPod, enjoy enormous success with the iPhone, and legitimize the tablet market with the iPad. While the results won’t be as dramatic as what it did with the iPod, I think the Mac App Store will invigorate the Mac software scene, attract new customers, and make existing customers more likely to purchase a Mac in the future.

Then again, I could be totally wrong. What do you think of the Mac App Store? Is it a genius move by Apple? Or am I overstating the impact that it will have?

Microsoft Launches New Xbox.com, Allows PC Avatar Editing

The new Xbox.com is here, complete with an dolly avatar editor. I’ve been playing around with it for a few minutes and it’s pretty neat. If you have time to check out the new Xbox.com — it took me like an hour to finally log in and it’s still kind of wonky — please let me know what you think!

Apple Unveils New MacBook Air Laptops: Instant-On, Flash Storage

At its “Back to the Mac” press conference, Apple unveiled new 11.6-inch and 13.3 inch MacBook Air laptops. Both models feature instant-on capabilities for super-fast boot-times and flash storage for zippy data access. The 2.3-pound 11.6-inch models feature 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo CPUs, while the 2.9-pound 13.3-inch models feature 1.86GHz CPUs. The smaller model has five hours of battery life, while the larger model has seven. Both models feature Nvidia 320M GPUs.

Here’s the price breakdown as per Apple’s press conference:

  • $999 11.6-inch with 64GB of storage
  • $1,199 11.6-inch with 128GB of storage
  • $1,299 13.3-inch with 128GB of storage
  • $1,599 13.3-inch with 256GB of storage

The 11.6-inch model has an option for a 1.6GHz CPU, while the 13.3-inch model has a 2.13GHz CPU option.

It’s disappointing that the new MacBook Airs use old CPUs, but it’s understandable from a positioning standpoint; the company still wants to sell plenty of its popular 13.3-inch MacBook Pro models and would have killed those sales by placing an i3 CPU in the MacBook Air. Furthermore, these are meant to be thin-and-light models that are all about fast boot times and fast hard drive access, not raw power. Still, it would have been nice to cut video on these babies.

Check out the pictures below and let me know what you think of the new MacBook Airs. Are you drooling for one? Do you think they’re too expensive?

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Coffee Talk #231: Rearranging Your Living Room for Kinect

I’d have to get rid of my coffee table in order to use Kinect for Xbox 360. I kind of like my coffee table. It’s useful and handsome. It’s also heavy. I’d worry about my right knee giving out if I had to move the coffee table every time I…

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, the Yankee bats completely choking (except for Cano), winning the lottery today, or BlizzCon 2010, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

I’d have to get rid of my coffee table in order to use Kinect for Xbox 360. I kind of like my coffee table. It’s useful and handsome. It’s also heavy. I’d worry about my right knee giving out if I had to move the coffee table every time I wanted to play Kinect…but that’s probably what I’m going to have to do.

RPadholics Iceman and N8R chatted with me about this topic yesterday: Do you have to rearrange your living room to use Xbox Kinect? Do you plan to? Do you find it ridiculous that this new form of gaming requires you to move furniture? Or is it worth it for the new and exciting experience?

Fake Steve Jobs Talks Google Android…Again

After nearly a month of silence, Fake Steve Jobs is back with a hilarious rant on Google Android. As with most of the blog posts by Fake Steve, this one should not be missed. Here’s a clip:

To reiterate: We are way more popular than Android. In fact, Android is not that popular at all. From what our research tells us, hardly anyone is buying Android phones. I know — that’s not what you’re hearing from the so-called “independent” market research outfits. So ask yourself, why is that? How could all those firms get this so incredibly wrong? Could it be that they’ve all been bought off by Google? Maybe that’s something that someone should be looking into.

But think about it. Do you know anyone who has an Android phone? I don’t. Honestly, not a single person I know has an Android phone. I’ve never seen one anywhere, in public, being used by a real person. I just haven’t. I mean I’ve seen the ads. But I haven’t seen an actual Android phone, and until I do, then as far as I’m concerned they simply don’t exist. They’re like Bigfoot, or the Loch Ness Monster. Great story, very entertaining, but not real.

I highly suggest reading the whole thing. Fake Steve rules!!!

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Google, RIM, and TweetDeck Fire Back at Apple’s Steve Jobs

Apple CEO Steve Jobs made a lot of noise with his comments during the company’s Q4 2010 earnings call. Google, RIM, and TweetDeck executives have refuted some of Jobs’ statements. The executive trash talking is getting good. Grab some popcorn and enjoy.

TweedDeck founder and CEO Iain Dodsworth sent out two tweets addressing Android fragmentation being a nightmare for developers:

Did we at any point say it was a nightmare developing on Android? Errr nope, no we didn’t. It wasn’t.

We only have 2 guys developing on Android TweetDeck so that shows how small an issue fragmentation is

Google VP of engineering Andy Rubin sent out a playful and nerdy tweet addressing Jobs’ assertion that Android isn’t really open:

the definition of open: “mkdir android ; cd android ; repo init -u git://android.git.kernel.org/platform/manifest.git ; repo sync ; make”

RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie issued a statement responding to Jobs’ diss on the company and the BlackBerry platform:

For those of us who live outside of Apple’s distortion field, we know that 7″ tablets will actually be a big portion of the market and we know that Adobe Flash support actually matters to customers who want a real web experience. We also know that while Apple’s attempt to control the ecosystem and maintain a closed platform may be good for Apple, developers want more options and customers want to fully access the overwhelming majority of web sites that use Flash. We think many customers are getting tired of being told what to think by Apple. And by the way, RIM has achieved record shipments for five consecutive quarters and recently shared guidance of 13.8 – 14.4 million BlackBerry smartphones for the current quarter. Apple’s preference to compare its September-ending quarter with RIM’s August-ending quarter doesn’t tell the whole story because it doesn’t take into account that industry demand in September is typically stronger than summer months, nor does it explain why Apple only shipped 8.4 million devices in its prior quarter and whether Apple’s Q4 results were padded by unfulfilled Q3 customer demand and channel orders. As usual, whether the subject is antennas, Flash or shipments, there is more to the story and sooner or later, even people inside the distortion field will begin to resent being told half a story.

This is great stuff! These guys should all get in a steel cage and for a last-man-standing match. I’d buy that on PPV.

Listen to Steve Jobs Rock Apple’s Q4 Earnings Call

Normally, I wouldn’t advise you to listen to an earnings call, but Apple CEO Steve Jobs made a rare appearance during Apple’s Q4 2010 results announcement. His presence made the call exponentially more entertaining. He blasted Android, blasted RIM and its BlackBerry platform, blasted seven-inch tablets, talked about sanding your fingers, and was his usually charming self. Click here to give it a listen (Jobs jumps in around the 15-minute mark). Here are some quotes from his Royal Worshipfulness Grandmaster High Steve.

On the “open” Google Android vs. the “closed” Apple iOS:

Google wants to characterize Android as open, and iOS and the iPhone as closed. We think this is disingenuous. Unlike Windows, which has the same interface on every machine, Android is very fragmented. Compare this with iPhone, where every interface is the same. You know, even if Google were right, and the real issue is closed versus open, it’s worth noting that closed systems don’t always win — look at Microsoft’s Plays For Sure model. Even Microsoft abandoned this strategy in favor of Apple’s integrated approach. We believed integrated will trump fragmented every time.

On seven-inch tablets vs. the Apple iPad:

Let’s talk about the avalanche of tablets. First, there are only a few credible competitors. And they all have seven-inch screen. This size isn’t sufficient to create great tablet apps. And this size is useless unless you include sandpaper so users can sand their fingers down to a quarter of their size. We’ve done extensive testing and 10 inches is the minimum tablet size. Given that tablet users will have a smartphone in their pocket, there’s no point in giving up screen size. Seven inch tablets are tweeners — too big to be a phone, and too small to compete with the iPad.

On Apple’s goals with the iPhone:

Our goal is to make the best devices in the world, not to be the biggest — as you know Nokia is the biggest, and we admire them for shipping as many devices as they do. But we don’t want to be like them — we want to be like us, and make the best devices. Nokia makes $50 handsets, and we’re not smart enough to figure that out yet — I’ll let you know when we do. Our goal is to make the best products in every industry we compete in while driving costs down. That’s what we did with iPod — it was relentless improvement and lower prices that was able to beat our competition. As you know we have a very low share in the phone market — single digits if you count all the handsets, and a high share in tablets because we were the first movers. But that’s not how we think about it. The reason we don’t make a seven-inch tablet isn’t cost, but because seven inches isn’t big enough for the software people want to put on them.

Steve is awesome.

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