Apple/Valve partnership in the works?

[Cryo84R]

Recently, Apple CEO Tim Cook was spotted at Valve in Washington. Valves desire to enter the hardware market, but lacking the experience do so, makes a partnership with Apple (the most successful hardware maker on the planet) a very sensible goal for them.

What could this mean? Think we will hear something at WWDC this summer?

http://www.cultofmac.com/160760/why-apple-ceo-tim-cook-met-with-valve-exclusive/

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Valve working with Apple.


So this is it.

The End Times will soon be upon us.

 

[Hazy992]

Valve working with Apple?

I'm just gonna brace myself for the oncoming shitstorm.

EDIT: Yep I was right, total flame war

 

[Total LOLige]

I can't wait for the iSteam app. Along with various games consoles like the iSteam shuffle- shuffle your games libray with ease, iSteam mini, iSteamPad gaming tablet phone. iSteam Chunky, iSteamPad 1.5, iSteamPad 2.0 iSteamPad 3.0

 

[Cryo84R]

Who sells more hardware at a better margin?

I hope not.

I do not care for apple. Their methods, Their products or their main consumer base. But hey lets see what happens.

Btw apple isn't the most successful hardware maker on the planet, and is indeed VERY unsuccessful when it comes to making gaming related hardware (apple pipin anyone? didn't think so).

 

[Cryo84R]

I will be more specific. Name a hardware company that sells more laptops, desktops, mobile phones, personal media players, tablets, routers, and TV accessories. The pippin was a failure, by any measure, but that was years ago. Apple is a significantly different company now.

Do companies beat apples sales in one or two of those areas? Totally. Combined? Not even close. We are getting off on a tangent, however. This thread is to discuss the implications of such a partnership.

Who sells more hardware at a better margin?

I hope not.

I do not care for apple. Their methods, Their products or their main consumer base. But hey lets see what happens.

Btw apple isn't the most successful hardware maker on the planet, and is indeed VERY unsuccessful when it comes to making gaming related hardware (apple pipin anyone? didn't think so).

Well first of all.
Hardware means more or less everything, so trying to compare is stupid as hell. Are you comparing Apple to GE or only specific products? What about Phillips who make monitors, but also makes shavers. I want to know what statistics you a using to compare this?

What I pointed out was that they are very unsuccessful at the specific type of hardware you are suggesting they are about to make.

 

[Cowabungaa]

To be precise, they're the most successful hardware designers in the world, not makers. Their expertise lies not in hardware, it lies in designing the most efficient user interface and make the most refined user experience possible. They're experts in taking complicated technology and scaling them down, user-interface-wise, so that even the most technologically disabled person can use it.

And that's why I have my doubts with this cooperation. Steam's core audience is completely different from Apple's core audience. Completely different needs and with completely different characteristics. Apple markets and designs it's products not as kick-ass technology, but as fashion items, as cool stuff. And that just won't do for the audience I think Steam has in mind for what they want to make.

Though to be fair I think that it doesn't matter whom Valve cooperates with, any sort of Steam Box is doomed to fail.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Valve working with Apple. Oh god no, I fucking hate Apple products. DO NOT WANT.

 

[Cryo84R]

You have missed my point. That being the fact that Apple is the most successful consumer electronics company on the planet, in addition to being the most valuable company on the planet by market cap. With a P/E ratio still under 20, it could be the worlds 1st trillion dollar company in a couple of years. It is worth 100 billion dollars more than Microsoft and Google *combined*. It has over 100 billion dollars in cash and equivalents on hand.

This is quantifiable success.

Again, this is tangential. How could a partnership between these two companies affect the industry as a whole? What could the possible outcome be? A service? A product?

 

[Vigormortis]

I think people are reading too much into this. What's more likely is this Tim Cook fellow showed up for one of two reasons.

Either:
A) he's a Valve fan-boy and used his connections to get a tour or;

B) He and Newell met up to discuss bringing a more refined version of Steam to the iOS.

Either could be the case but I'm inclined to think it's B.

 

[Esotera]

Valve have also been looking to hire a Linux engineer for 5 years, so yeah. (this has changed very recently, but misses the point)

They're probably just talking about finer details of how Steam works on Mac, getting rid of various issues & adding new features.

 

[Dimitriov]

Well, if Valve wants to retain my business they won't (BTW I am well aware that my personal preferences do not enter into their considerations).

But seriously, fuck Apple.

Their entire marketing campaign and appeal boils down to: "You should buy our products because then you will be teh cool! and even a complete idiot like you can use them! Yay!"

I cannot believe that they are so succesful

/end rant

 

[Laughing Man]

God what is it with the stupid rumours surrounding Valve of late? First you had them entering the console market with a system of such pie in the sky wonder that you would have to be a terminal moron to believe it for even a second, now you have a rumour about them entering the hardware market along side Apple.... really?

Given that Valve specifically Gabe Newell stated that he hated Apples closed source nature and the fact that if Apple make any hardware it will have a version of IOS at it's heart the chances of this 'mmeting' being anything more than

Work for Steam on MAC or Work for the Steam App on Ihone

are next to nothing.

What I find really funny is the initial rumour about Valve entering the hardware market threw around specs and an open sourced nature for the console that were beyond impossible, stupidly impossible, comically impossible. Now we have a rumour for the same thing Valve entering the hardware market, but the spec would be the exact opposite. If Apple has anything to do with it it will be locked down so tight you'll be lucky to be able to install Steam on the device let alone the open source free for all that the first set of rumours seemed to suggest.

Gotta hand it to Valve they may not have anything of real interest in the pipeline, gaming wise, in the near future but god can they generate a whole host of mad and stupid rumours by doing next to fucking nothing.

 

[Woodsey]

I don't see it. I don't think their views towards doing business align particularly well, and I don't think they take the same view towards hardware anyway. Newell's been more than clear about his opinion on how closed the consoles are, and Apple's platforms are hardly open.

Likewise, they don't function like a normal company (which would make any literal team-ups difficult), and they are more than capable of pulling stuff off by themselves anyway.

 

[skywolfblue]

iCompanion cubes?

World Domination Imminent!

 

[Eric Morales]

It makes a certain kind of sense, the Portal turrets DO kind of look like Apple products, although I've had one shooting at me for at least 10 minutes and I'm pretty sure I've never used an Apple device that could hold a charge that long.