Apple's quick cycle approach won't work in TV market, claims Nintendo's Iwata
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has cast doubt on Apple's ability to make a mark in the TV business, claiming the firm's success in the smartphone market won't be replicated in this new arena.
Answering questions from analysts at E3, Iwata said the quick cycle nature of the mobile business isn't replicated with TVs.
Users are much more inclined to keep their sets for several years, making the kind of quick penetration he believes Apple will be looking for with an app-equipped Apple TV almost impossible.
TV times
"We see in the mobile phone market that typically there is a cycle of people replacing their phones roughly every couple of years so a new device like a smartphone penetrates the market quickly," said Iwata, spotted by GamesIndustry.biz.
"But when it comes to the television market, the cycle for television replacement is actually much longer; say a five-year cycle at the shortest, to a seven or even 10-year cycle at the longest.
"So, however fantastic the new television is to be launched, it's not as likely that people will immediately move to upgrade a television necessarily because of that longer cycle."
Iwata is naturally inclined to dismiss any attempt by Apple to bring apps to the TV market given the threat it would represent to Nintendo's console business.
However, when questioned as to whether Nintendo had learned any lessons from Apple's hand in the smartphone gaming market specifically in relation to the free-to-play model he refused to play ball.
No free-for-all
"Currently, we are not actively looking at free to play for our first-party content and I dont think thats a direction that we should go in right now," added Iwata.
"If there are some people who feel that Mario is something that should be available as a free-to-play type model, I would have to clearly say that I disagree.
"But in the future if we come up with a very interesting idea of a novel game with totally different value and structure that would potentially be very well suited to free to play, we might go in that direction."
Iwata suggested he believes free-to-play games erode consumer perception of what quality games should cost.
"We would like those who highly recognise the value of the products we have created to play them," he concluded.
"What I am trying to say is that we are not considering introducing a free-to-play game if the game itself is not suitable in that fashion. I have no intention to deny every possibility of free-to-play."
[source: Nintendo]
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