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Nintendo 3DS Sales Affected By iOS Devices→
Nintendo 3DS Sales Affected By iOS Devices
Electronista reports the sales of the Nintendo 3DS won’t match the ones of the original Nintendo DS, according to iSuppli:
Nintendo’s 3DS sales will never match those of the earlier DS line due to competition from Apple and Google, IHS iSuppli said this weekend. The 3DS would hit 11.6 million devices in 2011, but it would always lag behind what the DS line managed at the same point in its history, hitting 69.9 million systems versus 90.9 million.
I was one of the people who stood in line at my local videogame store in 2004 to get an early DS unit imported from the US (back then, games didn’t have regional restrictions), and I bought a DSLite and DSi after that. But something’s changed in the mobile gaming industry since November 2004 (when the original DS went on sale), and that’s the quick adoption of app stores and touch-based smartphones. In fact, iSuppli believes that the iPod touch, the iPhone and iPad are affecting the sales of the 3DS, which is struggling in keeping sales numbers up in Japan. Official numbers haven’t been released yet (they’ll be available later this week), but the 3DS is doing okay for now. It’s just that there’s a general assumption it won’t do as well as the DS in the long term, mainly because the market has changed to accommodate iOS and Android devices as gaming machines that also happen to do many other things – again, thanks to online marketplaces like the App Store. On top of that, DS games are still sold in cartridges at $40 whilst you can find thousands of $2.99 - $9.99 games in the App Store. And with digital downloads, you don’t have to worry about physically carrying around anything except, well, your phone or tablet.
There are a lot of factors to consider when comparing Nintendo’s portable consoles to iOS devices (personally, I don’t believe the console will die anytime soon), but it’s very clear that in this new market many users are playing games on new devices like the iPod touch. Nintendo will keep selling its 3DS models for years, but don’t expect those numbers to be as huge as the original DS.
iPad 2 + Head Tracking: Glasses-free 3D
Jeremie Francone and Laurence Nigay from the Laboratory of Informatics of Grenoble at the EHCI Research Group have created one of the most impressive and, overall, amazing tech demoes for the iPad we’ve seen recently. By combining head-tracking technology that uses the iPad’s front facing camera with basic 3D graphics, they have developed a glasses-free 3D experience that doesn’t require the accelerometer, but it’s entirely based on the camera and the movements of a user’s head in front of the screen.
As you can see in the video after the break, graphics on screen change accordingly to the position of the user to give the illusion of tridimensional objects moving on the display. It is pretty amazing that this system only uses the camera and the effect is so well conveyed in a video.
We track the head of the user with the front facing camera in order to create a glasses-free monocular 3D display. Such spatially-aware mobile display enables to improve the possibilities of interaction. It does not use the accelerometers and relies only on the front camera.
Glasses-free 3D has been deployed by Nintendo in its latest 3DS portable gaming console, and a series of reports in the past suggested Apple could implement glasses-free 3D gaming for the next-generation iPod touch. The demo we have here today is truly impressive, so make sure to check it out below. Read more
Adobe TV Now Streaming to iOS Devices
Following the announcement of the Photoshop Touch SDK that will enable developers to write Photoshop-compatible iOS and Android apps, the scheduled release date of the CS 5.5 suite and the first demoes of third-party Photoshop software for the iPad, Adobe has also revamped its Adobe TV website (which contains several CS suite video resources and tutorials) to offer native video streaming for phones and tablets. The move came a little unexpected, as the website was well known for working under the Flash format on desktop computers, but incompatible with iPhones and iPads. This is changing today with a complete rewrite of the website that now detects the user agent of a mobile device and serves the proper video content without the need of Flash:
We just launched Adobe TV Mobile, which means you can now watch all your favorite Adobe TV videos on your iPad, iPhone, iPod, Android phone, and Android tablet. Simply visit tv.adobe.com from your tablet or phone and you’ll be automatically re-directed to an optimized experience for your device.
Adobe says the new website has nothing to do with the debate over Flash content on iOS devices, it simply was one of the most requested features and it’s been implemented because Adobe believes in “delivering our content to all platforms and devices that are meaningful to our audience.” If you’ve been looking for a way to consume Adobe Tv content on your iPads and iPhones, now it’s the time to open Mobile Safari and start streaming. [via TUAW]
iPhone 4 Finally Coming to India, iPad 2 Approved In China
Almost 10 months after the original release date in the United States, carriers Bharti Airtel and Aircel have confirmed that they will bring the iPhone 4 to India “in the coming months”. No details about pricing and availability have been provided, but at least this should be good news for Indian users that have been waiting for the device to launch on their local networks (assuming they didn’t go ahead and imported an iPhone 4 months ago, that is). India isn’t new to these delayed launches: the iPad 1, for example, was released a year after the announcement from Steve Jobs.
Furthermore, India has always seen an unexpected rise of iOS devices’ prices in the past – something that Apple never addressed specifically but that’s likely linked to the different economy of the country (smartphones have a 5% market share) and issues with international shipments. It’s also worth remembering that last year a rumor suggested India’s Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices were in talks with Apple for a CDMA iPhone 4 – which has been released on Verizon and it’s now awaiting an international expansion.
Last, as noted by 9to5mac the iPad 2 has been cleared for sale in China and should be launching soon:
The product obtained the license after passing a series of tests. It has a validity of five years, expiring on April 8, 2016. This move signals that the iPad 2 is set to make its official entry in the Chinese mainland market soon.
Apple’s Chinese website still has a “Notify Me” page as you can see here. The iPad 2 was released in 25 countries on Friday, March 25th.
iPhone 5 Production Starting in September? Cheaper iPhone Still In The Works?
According to a note issued by Avian Securities this morning, the next-generation iPhone will go into mass production in September – suggesting a late Fall 2011 / early 2012 public release. Avian Securities claims that “conversations with yet another key component supplier” confirms that production will start in September, with a lower price iPhone model still in the works and on Apple’s “roadmap”, although no details about the production of this rumored cheaper iPhone have been provided by the component suppliers.
Supporting out comments over the last month, conversations with yet another key component supplier indicates that production for iPhone-5 will begin in September. This is consistent with Avian findings in the supply chain in recent months and we believe the consensus view is moving towards this scenario. In addition, our conversations also indicate the existence of a lower-spec/lower-priced iPhone in Apple’s roadmap. However, while our contacts have seen the placeholder in the Apple roadmap, they do not yet have insight into specs or production timing. This leads us to believe that any launch is likely a very late 2011 or more likely a 2012 event.
Amazon Advertises “iPhone 5” on Google
The iPhone 5 hasn’t been announced yet – actually, no one knows if it’s even going to be called iPhone 5 – but apparently online retailer Amazon thought it was a good marketing strategy to buy ad links from Google for the search term “iPhone 5.” As noticed by The iPhone 5 News Blog, Amazon has already started advertising the iPhone 5 on Google – the obvious problem being that there’s no iPhone 5 available on the market and the ad takes you to an iPhone 4 page on Amazon.
I don’t think Amazon knows anything about the scheduled release of the next-generation iPhone (which is rumored to happen in Fall this year), and I believe this is simply a tactic to insert a placeholder on Google for people searching for iPhone 5 news on Google, and drive some traffic to Amazon’s iPhone 4 offerings at the same time.
There’s no doubt a lot of “iPhone 5” searches are performed on Google every day, and it’s pretty clear Amazon is trying to generate some pageviews for these queries – perhaps not cash, as someone who’s looking for an iPhone 5 should recognize he’s being fooled to buy an iPhone 4 instead. Not cool, Amazon. [via Macgasm]
JBL’s On Air Wireless AirPlay Speaker Dock Now Shipping
Unofficially revealed by the FCC in December 2010 and teased a few weeks ago by JBL itself with a signup product page, the On Air Wireless speaker dock with AirPlay functionalities is now shipping to Best Buy locations and Apple Stores. We’ve covered the On Air Wireless in the past, but here’s a quick recap: the device has built-in AirPlay support, meaning that it can receive audio from iOS devices, or Macs through iTunes; with the integration of an LCD display, it can also display artists’ information and album artwork for a richer wireless music experience; with the exclusive HALO radial design, it should guarantee an optimal audio quality to send music throughout your room. It is one of the first speakers (let alone speaker / dock) to display metadata coming from AirPlay, but there’s more: the thing has got playback control buttons, a clock with dual alarms to wake you at different times of the day, a digital FM radio and a USB port for firmware updates. It can be yours for $349 – it’s a premium product with lots of functionalities and deep AirPlay integration clearly meant for iOS and Mac users.
Press release below, order page available on the Apple online store. [via Engadget] Read more
Apple Hires Carbon Fiber Expert As Senior Composites Engineer
It was yesterday discovered that Apple has discreetly hired Kevin Keeney as a Senior Composites Engineer. What makes this hire interesting is that Keeney is the CEO of a carbon fiber bike designer, Kestrel Bicycles, and has previously worked with Apple on a carbon fiber shell patent in 2009.
There is potential that by making Keeney’s position a permanent one, Apple may be ramping up an effort to produce Apple products with carbon fiber. Like the evolution of using aluminum, which has become a staple in Apple products, the use of carbon fiber could further push its products to even lighter and thinner levels whilst maintaining the strength of aluminum. There are some issues that need to be resolved however, mainly dealing with the cost of carbon fiber compared to aluminum and the reduced ability for heat absorption, which could prove troubling.
Keeney has extensive experience with his 20 years of design work and supply chain management, both of which would be beneficial in any potential job of rolling out a mass-production of carbon fiber based products. It had been falsely rumoured in February that the iPad 2 could potentially replace the aluminum backing of the original with a carbon fiber based one.
[Via 9to5 Mac]