fatslob-:O said:
Thinking on the long term is nice however you want to capitalize on the present. Thinking too far ahead can have some significant impacts like Sony aggressively pushing blu-ray and cell processor technology. That costed Sony on a commercial and technical front in a negative manner. Sony was right about blu-ray technology but at the wrong time however they were dead wrong about the industry adopting the programming model for the cell processor and that had some severe impact thoughout their 7th generation. Similarily Nintendo was pushing glass-free 3D technology and look how it costed them ... If anything making a product for the future is short sighted so if one prediction doesn't come true a console manufacturer will come to regret it making that decision ... @Bold That is not true with chips today. If anything cost reduction won't come for quite a while so what you put out today will likely cost the same to manufacture in 3 years time ... Apple can afford to advance on new transistor technology when their selling new iPhones for $600 but the same cannot be said for Nintendo and their often cost effective handheld devices ... |
New transistor tech is probably more risky for companies like Apple because they have much higher order volumes to hit. No offence to Nintendo, but they're in the kiddie pool by comparison (so is Sony). But Apple needs to hit monstrous volume for a new iPad or iPhone, but they still use not even new, but modern transitior tech.
If Sony didn't use 28nm on the PS4 and instead opted for the more mature 40nm or something ... they would likely be losing the console war right now because the XBox One would likely be more powerful. There's something to be said for being in step with technology.
Some times you can be so risk averse that basically you cripple any chance you have of being competetive.
I think Nintendo needs to wake up as well about what is actually "affordable tech". You know why a big reason is that a lot of parents/kids aren't biting on a dirt cheap 2DS? Because it's not actually that cheap. Sure the hardware is dirt cheap, but people aren't stupid, they know the games cost $30, versus an iPod Touch which may cost $199.99, but has a far better screen quality, does far more things than just play games, and has $1/free games.
Guess which one is winning out? If Nintendo wants to charge $30 for portable games in the world of 2015 and beyond, I think they need to understand that people are absolutely right to expect more. They cannot continue to use the same formula they did in the 1980s and think that should work 100% today. Too much has changed.
I don't agree that just slapping together a cheap piece of plastic and calling it a day will bring Nintendo success even in the handheld business anymore. Consumers are more savvy than that today, if you're going to bring something, you better bring something that impresses.
