GigaOM » nintendo

Connected consumer third-quarter 2012

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 06:55:33 +0000

The third quarter saw many parts of the traditional media business in flux. New digital platforms that once had confined themselves to user-generated content began to invest in creating professional-quality content. At the same time, TV programmers began to wrestle with both the threat and the opportunity presented by second-screen and social-TV platforms. The period also saw the rollout of new device-based content ecosystems, red flags and red ink for traditional consumer electronics makers, and a resurgence of consumer purchases of movies. This quarterly wrap-up discusses these developments as well as offers trends and topics to watch for the remainder of 2012 and beyond.

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Nintendo’s Wii U bets big on second screen TV

Janko Roettgers — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 16:48:39 +0000

Nintendo’s Wii U game console, which will go on sale mid November in the U.S., will feature on-demand video from Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon as well as some interesting second-screen action for live TV consumption. The company revealed details of its media offering, which is officially called Wii U TVii, at a press event in New York Thursday.

Nintendo had first announced that the Wii U would come with support for Netflix, Amazon and Hulu Plus at the E3 gaming show in Los Angeles earlier this summer. The move means that the company is catching up with its competitors Sony and Microsoft, which have been offering video services on their current-generation game consoles for some time. Microsoft in particular has been putting a lot of emphasis on TV, adding live TV feeds for pay TV subscribers and numerous other services in recent months.

The line-up of supported services on Nintendo’s Wii U TVii looks kind of meager in comparison, but the console has something that none of its competitors can offer: integration with a user’s existing cable or satellite TV service. That’s possible because the Wii U’s gamepad, which is essentially a touchscreen tablet, doubles as a remote control with IR blaster and second screen capabilities.

Check out a demo video of Wii U TVii below:

The gamepad can be used to browse both titles on services like Netflix as well as live TV listings. Owners of a TiVo can even control their DVR through the gamepad. And it will turn into a second screen while you watch live TV, displaying game stats during a sports game and making it possible to interact with your Twitter followers. This type of functionality was made possible through a cooperation with I.tv, a company that previously built second-screen experiences for media brands like Entertainment Weekly and AOL.

Nintendo said that the TVii service will be free to use. Of course, users will still have to pay for Netflix, Amazon and Hulu Plus — but making the service free itself sets it apart from media services on the Xbox, which require a Xbox Gold subscription in addition to any third-party fees. However, the question is: With so many apps for existing tablets already providing second-screen experiences, and other consoles offering access to many more services, will Nintendo’s Wii U TVii really move the needle and make users want to buy a Wii U?

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Takeaways from connected consumer’s second quarter

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 06:55:44 +0000

Tablets featured prominently in the connected consumer space during the second quarter of 2012, both as a product category in their own right and as a component of broader platform strategies by the major OS providers. Meanwhile Apple added AirPlay streaming to Mac OS, and Microsoft made an aggressive bid to dominate the second screen by introducing SmartGlass apps. The period also saw important moves by Facebook to broaden its monetization strategy and an investigation by federal antitrust authorities into pay-TV licensing practices and their impact on the emerging online-video business. This quarterly wrap-up discusses these developments as well as offers trends and topics to watch in the second half of 2012 and beyond.

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Who and what to watch in the new era of the living room

Thu, 31 May 2012 06:55:44 +0000

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Video game consoles are growing energy hogs

Katie Fehrenbacher — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 15:33:11 +0000

The amount of energy consumed by video game consoles has increased by almost 50 percent between 2007 and 2010 in the U.S., according to a report out from Carnegie Mellon University (hat tip CNET). As of 2010 game consoles consumed 16 TWh of energy in the U.S., which is about 1 percent of U.S residential electricity consumption.

The energy consumption increase was due partly to the basic fact that overall sales of game consoles have increased. The report found that by the end of 2010, there were over 75 million video game consoles sold via Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Nintendo’s Wii, and Sony’s Play-
Station 3.

But another part of the problem is that the latest consoles have much more high performance computing power, than previous generation consoles. Users are turning to video game consoles to do more than just gaming and consoles can be used to play movies and music and connect to the web.

While the increase in sales, and the increase in performance of game consoles is generally all well and good (we’re not advocating those to go away), the growth in energy consumption is also coming with the estimate that consoles are not powering down and going into idle mode as efficiently as they can. For example the report found that “an average user that never powers down a current model Xbox 360 will consume more than ten times electricity as a similar user who always powers down the console after use.”

That’s the real problem. The report says that there needs to be a much greater incorporation of a default auto power down feature in the consoles, which could lead to electricity consumption reduction of 75 percent and a saving of $1 billion per year in consumer electricity bills.

The report adds that there is a level of uncertainty when trying to study consumer behavior in terms of how often or not they power down their machines after use. But the report accounts for the uncertainty in its results and recommendations.

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Greying consumers are a gold mine for VCs

Barb Darrow — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 13:01:56 +0000

Most venture capitalists obsess on the latest shiny object for the 18-34 demographic. That’s remarkably shortsighted. The aging U.S. population is a potential gold mine for entrepreneurs who can build technologies to help this huge demographic remain active and stay in their homes as long as possible.

The cohort of Americans over age 55 is massive. “This is a huge market — $3 trillion in annual disposable income,” said Jody Holtzman, SVP of thought leadership for the AARP.

Holtzman was one of a panel of experts who spoke this week on The Rise of the Grey Market an event hosted by Redstar, a Cambridge, Mass. company that’s somewhat like an incubator. Redstar focuses on the older demographic and a few other underserved markets. So why is Redstar keen on retirees? Here’s what the panel had to say:

1. Technologies and services to foster “aging in place” will be huge

The number-one desire of most aging Americans is to stay in their homes. That age-in-place trend represents a $10 billion to $20 billion market opportunity in and of itself, Holtzman said.

Still, it’s a thorny problem. Most senior citizens aren’t wild about having surveillance cameras or other intrusive technologies tracking them at home. And yet many of them live alone (42 percent of women over the age of 65 in the U.S. live solo), and have distant children who worry about their well-being. So research must be done to make technologies that are acceptable to them and let family members know whether they’re okay or not. The AARP estimates the unpaid value of care provided to family members by children or siblings is $450 billion annually.

“If we can blend monitoring and managing with social media tools and sharing or connecting with other people, that might be more attractive,” said Joe Coughlin, director of MIT’s AgeLab, which is working on the e-Home project, which uses wireless sensors to signal potential problems, like a stove being left on for hours.

2. When tech products hit big with older Americans, it’s often by mistake

The Wii and Apple’s iPad are big hits with aging Americans, but that was a happy accident. “Wiis are huge in nursing homes, unbeknownst to Nintendo,” said panelist Joe Coughlin, director of MIT’s AgeLab.

Smart companies will design products for older people while not condescending to them. For example, car companies should focus on personalized dashboards that will help older people drive safely longer. Similarly, car doors should be designed to allow easy entry and exit, and seats should be crafted with stronger lumbar support.

“Connected health” efforts, like Vitality’s smart pill bottle cap, could be big. That product alerts pharmacies when a refill is needed and reminds the patient to take her pills. ”The challenge for these connected health initiatives is to embed things in everyday objects,” said David Rose, CEO of Vitality.

Also, those who design things need to make them look good. Many elderly people don’t wear their emergency alert devices because they’re ugly, panelists said.

3. Target market: baby boomer care givers

Baby boomers — people between 47 to 65 years of age — face a dilemma. Many are still caring for children while also assuming more care for aging parents. A huge percentage of that group is both willing and able to pay for services and products that will keep their parents safe and happy — and give the caregiver peace of mind.

“As parents age, life is more complex. When you turn 50 to 55, that’s the in-between stage, and your life gets exponentially more complex. How do you take people in my situation and make their lives simpler?” asked Frank Moss, director of new media medicine at MIT’s Media Lab.

4. Think services, not just products

SilverRide, a Bay Area company that started up to help retirees get to doctors appointments, quickly found its users wanted more. “They found demand pull from people was not just for rides but to introduce customers to other customers,” said Coughlin. ”People want to connect — they want social interaction and activities. SilverRide now promotes and hosts group events.

Home delivery and check-in services, and add-ons around them, could be very big.

5. Research, research, research

The findings may surprise you — and force you to rethink your game plan. Coughlin mentioned one research project that wired up people’s medicine cabinets to monitor their use of prescriptions. “What they found was very few people keep their meds in a medicine cabinet. It’s all about bags, baskets and boxes,” Coughlin said.

Panelists recommended talking to social scientists and anthropologists as well as senior citizens themselves to gauge behaviors and preferences. AARP makes a lot of its information public as does the MetLife Foundation, Holtzman said.

But the biggest takeaway from the event remained that this “huge bulge of people getting older is a huge opportunity for entrepreneurs and investors,” said RedStar co-founder Jeet Singh.

Some rights reserved by Marcel Oosterwijk

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Netflix on Wii just got kids-friendly

Janko Roettgers — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 15:13:04 +0000

Netflix officially rolled out its Just for Kids section on the Wii Tuesday morning, making the kids-friendly previously available only in South America accessible to U.S. customers as well. The roll-out marks the beginning of a wider expansion of a more kids-appropriate interface to connected devices. The company’s director of product innovation David Watson announced the changes on Netflix’s blog:

When you launch the Netflix app on Wii, you can choose the Just for Kids section, letting the kids browse without worrying if they will come across content not intended for young viewers.

We first reported in July that Netflix was working on a kids-centric UI, and the company rolled it out to all its users on the web a month later. Netflix made the new Wii UI available to its subscribers in South America earlier this month, and a spokesperson told me at the time it would bring a kids-specific section to the PS3 soon after.

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Connected world: the consumer technology revolution

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 08:01:08 +0000

Connectivity changes everything. That’s the credo driving just about every corner of our day-to-day lives. As human beings, we are now connected to one another through not just our social networks but also our cars, the books we read, the albums we download and even our own health and wellness habits (to name just a few areas). With that in mind, GigaOM Pro has singled out certain areas in the technology industry where we see this shift to constant connectivity taking place most drastically.

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The future of mobile: a segment analysis by GigaOM Pro

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 07:01:22 +0000

As our demand for data increases, so too do the number of mobile devices and services. Add to that the infrastructure needed to support such connectivity, and a wide, complex picture of the mobile industry emerges. This report examines the various sectors of the mobile landscape and what the future holds for each. Hardware, cloud services, mobile search, advertising, location-based services and the growing ubiquity of the Internet of Things will all play an important role in the concept of mobility as it shifts and evolves over the next several years. With the help of more than a dozen contributors, GigaOM Pro presents a comprehensive analysis of the companies and trends that will lead us into the next era of mobile.

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Apple’s iPad gaming future bright as Nintendo abstains

Darrell Etherington — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 18:07:30 +0000

The iPad gaming community is big and getting bigger, according to a new report from market research firm Interpret. Total iPad gamers number 8 million out of 11.4 million iPad owners in the U.S. alone, according to Interpret. It’s a growing community in terms of both straight numbers and also in terms of percentage of the overall iPad owner pool, according to the firm, but at least one game maker seems firmly committed to ignoring the opportunity inherent in that growth.

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata reiterated Thursday that his company is not interested in making software for iPads or iPhones. He told Japanese news site Nikkei (via The Loop) that in fact, such a plan “is absolutely not under consideration,” because in doing so, “Nintendo would cease to be Nintendo.”

Yet preserving what it means to be Nintendo may be giving up a key position in the future of gaming. “Collectively, iPad gamers are showing slightly decreased involvement with gaming on home consoles, mobile phones, and Nintendo handheld consoles,” said Interpret analyst Jason Preston in a press release. “These facts imply that iPad game developers and publishers can definitely reach a new audience on the iPad.”

The iPad’s appeal extends not only to traditional console gamers, but also to a growing portion of people new to digital gaming, says Interpret. People who use their iPads for gaming are increasingly older, with 40 percent falling into the 35-to-65 age group category during its second quarter 2011 survey vs. just 31 percent from its first survey period last year. Many more women are playing, too. Interpret found that the share of female iPad gamers was up to 48 percent during its most recent poll, vs. just 40 percent in 2010.

iPad gamers who are also console gamers also represents a shrinking percentage of the overall group.

It’s understandable sentiment that Iwata would want to preserve Nintendo as-is, as he’s been Nintendo’s president since 2002 and saw it through the flush years of the Wii and DS, both of which were massive successes for the Japanese-based game-maker. Nintendo has also been in the gaming hardware business since 1977, so it has a long history of making both systems and games.

But there are a number of sound business reasons why Nintendo should consider making software for Apple, including flagging sales of its own hardware, a shaky future for new and upcoming devices like the 3DS and Wii U, and the successful example of other companies who’ve followed the same path in the past, like one-time rival Sega.

Nintendo wants a comeback, and I’d like to see it get one, but with the release of 3DS peripherals that correct obvious oversights in the original design, and reports that the Wii U is facing serious technical problems, Iwata’s outright refusal to even consider iOS development seems like yet another backwards step.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Vincent Diamante

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