In the WSJ last week. They are buying up large swaths of internet infrastructure. They want to move some data. Video content? Capitalizing on the judgement against net neutrality? Something else?
I’d like a hint before I start buying their stock. A 64-bit mobile OS or the aluminum can Pro isn’t doing it for me.
Gaming?
Valve Steam Machines are due to be popping up this year, an Apple/Valve gaming partnership would be really shake up the industry…a Mac Mini-like and competitively priced Apple Steambox? That’d be cool. I was pretty excited when Valve was able to open up titles for MacOS.
I had read/heard that Jobs was anti-gaming, and while the MacOS has always had a limited range of titles from developers willing to invest in the platform they’ve missed a huge market opportunity, not to mention Macs are not competitively priced for use as gaming machines.
That’s all probably a longshot though, they probably are planning something more mundane.
Netflix killer? They already have the content. Maybe just switching the distribution model.
I doubt that. Why would they change from $30 a season for Mad Men the day after it airs? I suppose anything is possible though.
They’re probably not going into gaming; Valve is developing the Steambox, based on open-source Linux. A Mac partnership would be antithetical to that, I feel. Plus, you don’t need to buy up a lot of internet infrastructure to get into gaming.
More likely, IMO, is that they’re seeing what Google is doing with Google Fiber and are like “I want some of that”.
Agree on the open-source Linux and that you don’t need a lot of internet infrastructure to get into gaming. But if you want to sell and distribute gaming titles, or offer persistent MMO’s and online servers that you can capitalize you just might, though I doubt they’d get into and get into that big.
Speculation is that it’s all for streaming content.
My hope is that they disrupt the Cable industry. Channel by channel based subscriptions.
Maybe something like WWE is doing. WWE Has Its Own Network Now, And It's an All You Can Suplex Buffet
The most I could see from this logic is that Apple is investing in servers to compete with Amazon. They probably won’t be making any MMOs of their own, but they may license out their services. Cloud technology is hot right now, and it’s set to grow. It would make sense that they would start to build out server and data capacity, though not even necessarily for a specific purpose - just having rentable server farms is money in the bank right now.
On a related note, what is Google up to? Love this video:
Side note: I know I’m late to the game, but I’m getting super hooked on youtube subscriptions
Maybe they’ll be the first to ditch the harddrive? Floppy, CDROM, HDD…
The answer to this question is easy: doing something someone has already done recently, they will take more time to do it better, and do well out of the gates. =)
Cook isn’t spilling the beans.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/28/us-apple-tv-idUSBREA1R1O420140228
The google video reminds me of Ray Kurzweil and the singularity. Hmmm.
Curious to see how the recent net neutrality decisions influence their growth.
My dream is that they’ve struck a deal with content providers for pay per channel/show live TV streaming. I don’t think we’ll see that for some time still, so most likely they are continuing to build out their online services (iCloud) which has been historically poor compared to their competitors in Google/Microsoft.
Netflix killer? They already have the content. Maybe just switching the distribution model.
I don’t think they have the content. Netflix is shifting towards a content creator/provider whereas Apple just resells content. Does Apple want to create their own shows/movies? My bet is they are just preparing for the future with a continuing push to improve their online services.