In a sales call to talk about Apple’s numbers over the past quarters, Tim Cook acknowledged an increasingly prescient fact: iPod’s are in decline. iPod sales dipped precipitously by 52%, while revenues dropped by 54%. That means the iPod accounts for merely 2% of Apple’s overall income. Cook wants to focus on the Apple TV instead, and has immediately done so by listing the Apple TV in its own section, upgrading it from what Steve Jobs called a “Hobby” to a full-fledged product line. The new section of the store also features Apple TV accessories, old refurbished versions of the device, and a Q&A section. The dedicated product section very likely means that there will be substantial upgrades coming to the device soon, and that persistent rumor of a new Apple TV with a TV tuner, additional gaming, and wireless router options could just come to pass.
Category: Percolate
Reports: Amazon To Launch Console
According to reports, a senior game publisher has seen prototypes of Amazon’s Android-based gaming console. According to VG24/7, the console will be priced at around $300, and it will be about the size of the PSone. The device is reported to be ready for launch this year. Whether the report is true, it’s no secret that Amazon is interested in a device – be it a set-top box or a game console – on which to feature streamed content for the living room, if only to differentiate itself from Netflix, who are clearly dominating the streamed content space. It also wants to boost its Prime Instant Video service, and this device would be a perfect conduit to do just that. It’s doubtful that we’ll see something of precisely this iteration, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see Amazon put out hardware designed to lure consumers into its ecosystem in this calendar year.
MakerBot Partners With Dell
Starting February 20th, small and medium-sized businesses will be able to purchase MakerBot’s 3D printers and scanners through the Dell printer store. The goal, for Dell, is to offer engineers complete end-to-end design to prototyping solutions through the Dell store. At the same time, as part of the deal Makerbot will be the only 3D printing solution offered by Dell. The store will offer the MakerBot Replicator 2, 2X, Z18, Mini Compact 3D Printer, Mini Desktop 3D Printer, and the Desktop 3D Scanner. While 3D printers slowly gain a mainstream audience, the avenues for designers to prototype products with 3D printers only grows.
Google Glass Titanium Collection
One of the major inhibitions for wide-spread adoption of Google Glass is certainly its overly-distinctive design, in addition to the fact that the smart glasses aren’t actually glasses. In one swoop Google’s changed all that with its Titanium Collection for Google Glass, which features super light titanium frames, twist-on sunglasses, and prescriptions in addition to the heads-up display in the upper right corner. The styles, named Split, Thin, Bold, and Curve, are now available to Explorers (aka beta testers) as part of a $225 upgrade option this afternoon. One of the major stumbling-blocks for Google has officially been overcome.
While function is obviously paramount, wearables cannot overlook aesthetics. Making glasses’ appearance more conventional might spur adoption while quieting privacy concerns prior to their public launch.
Steam In-Home Streaming Beta Launches
There are several systems that allow users to stream games across devices and wifi networks; PlayStation Vita, Nvidia Shield, and many others announced at CES are pushing into this category. Valve’s SteamOS and Steam Machines made headlines at CES, but this In-Home streaming flew under the radar and is only now being reported on. It allows users to stream games from a powerful desktop PC onto laptops and other steam devices that are synced on the same wi-fi network and steam account. It’s OS agnostic, so long as the game in question is as well. You can even utilize non-steam apps like Photoshop on different computers across the network, so long as you add them to Steam. Of course, it’s still in beta and needs to be ironed out before it’s ready for the prime time, but it’s yet another indication of companies catering to users’ demand to access their content across devices, when and where they want it. It’s only a matter of time before this type of media access is the norm.
H&M’s Shoppable TV Spot
H&M will be running a Super Bowl spot promoting some lovely briefs donned by David Beckham. Even more interesting than David Beckham’s Bodywear, is the T-Commerce integration which will allow viewers receive more information in addition to purchasing items directly from their Samsung Smart TV. If QVC is any indication, the marriage of content and commerce could be very lucrative for brands and advertisers.
You Can Now Drive Tesla’s Across The Country
Tesla announced the completion of the first Supercharger line that reaches from the east coast to the west coast, and it’s already been proven effective. That’s right: an electric car has driven across the country, from LA to NYC, using exclusively Tesla’s free Superchargers. Not only is there just one route to get across the country, Tesla’s installed charger stations throughout Arizona, from Seattle to San Diego, and in Connecticut down the coast to Florida. According to Tesla all stations are located near major interchanges, and an 80% charge only takes 40 minutes. As it becomes easier and easier to get places via electric cars, the traditional automotive industry will have to stop and take notice.
Facebook’s Referral Traffic Share Up 48% In Q4 2013
Social discovery and sharing platform Shareaholic released a report looking at referral traffic data from social media sites in Q4 of 2013. Here’s the short of it: Facebook, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, and Google+ all gained, while Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, and LinkedIn lost. But the data says that Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter combine to dominate so much of the Internet’s referral traffic that the numbers don’t actually speak for the other sites in this category – combined, the rest of the sites only had 1% of the total share, so even as their shares jumped around rapidly it’s hard to take those numbers seriously in the big picture. So, for the top three, Facebook’s referral traffic share rose from 10.37% to 15.44%, and Pinterest also rose from 3.68% to 4.79%; Twitter essentially remained level, changing from 1.17% to 1.12%. The takeaway? Facebook, as usual in these sorts of studies, is the real winner, having driven more than twice the referrals of all other platforms combined.
Reports Suggest Apple Will Enter Mobile Payments Space
According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple is looking to expand its presence into the mobile-payments space as Apple’s senior vice-president, Eddy Cue, has begun making inquiries into the possibility of Apple handling payments for physical goods and services. Though services like Square, PayPal and Stripe have dominated the space thus far, Apple’s note-worthy lack of NFC adoption has always meant that they’d have to come up with their own technology or their own software solutions. They tried – and largely failed – with Passbook, much like Google Wallet, but the iTunes store has a cache of over 400 million credit card accounts that are active, so if Apple can figure out a good method to leverage this wealth of knowledge, it could become a major player in the mobile payments space very quickly. With the combination of TouchID to verify users’ identities, and the new iBeacon BLE technology, Apple may have already laid the foundations, technologically speaking. Knowing Apple, they’ll take some time to put all of the pieces together, but when they do it could be a very potent medium.
Old Spice Returns With Prank Websites
The body-care company is simply relentless with its creative ads that have massive viral potential. Making the rounds this time are prank websites designed to be ridiculous in nature, and after several seconds of resting on the site an alarm goes off and the familiar Old Spice guy pops up – in stunning HD courtesy of Vimeo – to admonish you for coming to such a website, and to advertise Old Spice in the process. Assuming nothing’s changed, we have Weiden + Kennedy to thank for the laughs, and considering how much this campaign mirrors the others, it’s fairly safe to assume as such. Moving from traditional TV to YouTube, Reddit, and then covert websites has proved a savvy creative scheme. Have a look at a few of the sites below:
