It’s been a week of technolust fulfillment, with both Apple and Nintendo pulling the curtains back on some next generation sexy. But perhaps what’s most interesting about these announcements is what it says about the race for the online living room.
Apple’s iTV, for instance, requires you have a separate computer that stores all your content. The nice thing about it is that, unlike Microsoft’s unsightly Windows Media Center, you don’t have yet another full-fledged Windows box in your living room. The annoying thing about it is that your content is being beamed from a completely different part of your house. I can imagine Apple will do this as well as it can be done, but will inevitably break down at some point. The Mac-to-iTV-to-TV loop is overcomplicated and it exists only because Apple wants to keep Mac in the loop, just as it’s done with countless iPod+Mac tie-ups.
This is Apple adopting Microsoft’s time tested strategy of leveraging a market leading product (the iTunes/iPod juggernaut) to improve the success of those that lag. This clearly worked in the past, but the result is usually nasty and the living room isn’t the office. That’s where Nintendo’s strategy is different. Gamecube’s failure was painful but it also means they have no legacy product to shoehorn into the new venture. N has the opportunity to start clean and, if today’s presentation is any indication, they aren’t wasting it.
The hype today is about the Wii’s launch date (my birthday!) and price, but what’s more fascinating to me is how much N really seems to get the living room. Sadly for some, Nintendo’s vision doesn’t include theatrical movies (don’t we already have a way to play those?). It does, however, include an SD slot for immediate viewing of photos and home movies (no messy uploading to your computer then burning a DVD then playing on your TV), tons of downloads (like Xbox Live Arcade), an interesting approach to online/offline messaging, quick news and weather, and pure Internet access. All making use of the best couch-side pointing device to date.
Not all of this is new, but where Nintendo has really shown understanding of its audience is the end-to-end implementation. Where Apple and Microsoft pull in legacy bits that lead to decisions like multiple computers and multiple controllers (one for gaming, another for movies), Nintendo has proposed one clean solution: There are any number of “convergence” devices you could put in your living room, but few have thought hard about the extra mile between the user and the device. Wii solves this by letting you do absolutely everything (playing, mouselike pointing, vegetable chopping) using one very familiar device — the Wiimote. Heck, each type of Wii content is grouped into a channel. Nice metaphor reuse. I can already hear Mom saying: “I can use this, it works just like the TV.”
It was clear before that Nintendo’s play would be to get non-traditional audiences to play games by providing a controller with a familiar form factor. What became clear today is that Nintendo is making a play for the online living room with much the same approach: leveraging what we know. It pains me to say this with my long career as an Apple zealot, but isn’t simplicity supposed to be Apple’s game?
For more, take a quick video tour of the Wii front end. And check out Reggie’s higher level overview.
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