Friday View: Apple launches could spell trouble

After three years at the top, Tim Cook will look to make a mark on the tech industry with new product reveals but does that spell trouble for operators.

As headline numbers show, Apple is proving to be a great friend to many mobile gambling operators who now rely on iOS apps as their main source of revenue. So perhaps unsurprisingly it seems many operators are waiting with bated breath to see what 2014 holds for Apple.

With a relatively quiet year for the Cupertino-based tech beast in 2013 and Tim Cook approaching his third year at the helm, some analysts are concerned over the lack of innovation at the company.

Despite launching new updates such as the iPhone 5S and iPad, Apple’s latest updates have been largely routine. During a earning calls in Q2 2013, Cook hinted new product categories would be launching, but this has yet to materialise.

“We see great opportunities in front of us particularly given the long term prospects of the smartphone and tablet market, the strength of our incredible ecosystem which we plan to continue to augment with new services, our plans for expanded distribution and the potential of exciting new product categories.” said Cook during the call.

Looking back over the company’s recent history, it’s noted that Apple has had a series of flagship products that have been at the forefront of innovation. In October 2001 the iPod launched, changing the way we listened to music, in 2007 the iPhone was released and quickly became a main player amongst the smartphone world and three years later tablet computing was born with the iPad. What’s next?

Go big or go home

It does seem that Apple aims to be going big in 2014. The rumour mill suggests that Apple are extremely keen to keep up the screen size in both iPhone and iPad form.

There’s a consensus that Apple are trialling a new, larger iPhone, but reports on the exact screen size have been conflicting. According to chinese site C Technology, the company is testing a prototype with 4.9-inch display. On  the flipside Bloomberg suggest that Apple are developing two new screen sizes at 4.7-inch and 5.5inch, both with a curved display.

The increase in screen real estate from its current 4-inch to a larger 5-inch may seem small on paper, but in reality it does seem that consumers do wish to see the company producing phablets.

Since the launch of the first mass market phablet, the Samsung Galaxy Note in 2011, there’s been a 501% demand for phablets since May 2012. The market for phablets will also quadruple in value within three years to $135 billion, according to analysts at Barclays.

It would seem silly for Apple to ignore this trend, but it would be a backtrack on what the company said at the launch of the iPhone 5. “No one comes close to matching its quality. We were able to develop a larger screen size without sacrificing one-handed use” said Tim Cook.

In the same vein it also appears Apple are eager to bump up the screen size of the iPad to 12.9-inches. Analysts are expecting them to introduce the bigger device as the “iPad Pro” during the tail end of the year.

Some suggest that an iPad this size would allow for a degree of convergence between laptops and tablets, as well as the iOS and OS X platforms. Although unlikely Apple could decide to launch a special iOS edition for the iPad, as a hybrid version of both the desktop and mobile OSs, this could become a further device and operating system that operators would have to consider catering for.

Originally tipped as consumption devices, iPads have become the go-to device for many, allowing them to write emails, edit their photos but also casually play a wide variety of games on the go or on their sofas while watching TV.

It’s expected that tablets sales will overtake PC sales in Q4 2013, and some believe the iPad Pro could also accelerate the death of the laptop. It would offer the perfect blend of the flexibility that laptops offer, as well as the portability of the current iPad range.

This increased demise of the laptop would mean gambling operators would need to significantly invest in mobile development or risk being shut out to an even greater degree by changing consumer behaviour.

Accentuate the positive

On the positive side a larger screen estate would allow for different experience. Operators have the chance to allow for richer graphics and improved interaction between the device and players, arguably creating a more immersive atmosphere for players. But this comes at a new development cost.

When Apple announced both the retina display and the larger iPhone 5 developers scrambled to ensure their apps were updated.  Apps that weren’t updated would appear pixelated or in a letterbox mode, offering an inferior experience to customers.

This could mean the days of developing for single size screens for iPhone and iPad are gone, something that developers loved about the iOS platform. Larger screen sizes for new generations of both the iPad and iPhone would mean an incredible amount of development and quality assurance works for operators and their developers. Apple could ease the pain and release an optimisation tool to quickly update apps, but this is unlikely.

For operators with a large number apps this could be time-consuming and costly but likely worthwhile. Although some believe the perfect remedy is for operators to switch full to HTML5 apps, native apps win hands down with 85% of smartphone users, according to a report published by Compuware APM.

Another point on Apple’s roadmap could be the launch of iOS 8 in September. Although apps don’t usually need much optimisation this is yet another factor to consider. And yet another many believe Apple is willing to crack is that of wearable tech. Reports last year suggested that Apple would release a smartwatch by the end of 2013, but this never came to fruition. Despite the timeframe, the company has filed for ownership of the “iWatch” name in numerous countries.

The Samsung Galaxy Gear hit the markets in September 2013, it hasn’t set the world alight, but in true Apple style, the ‘iWatch’ it’s expected to have tight integration with the iPhone allowing for numerous possibilities.

Watching for the iWatch

Would an iWatch impact on the mobile gaming sector? Arguably wearables could start to make an impact on gaming with notifications and interactions occurring from the wrist instead of our pockets, therefore creating an environment a more casual environment for users to interact with apps.

2014 will be an interesting year for both Apple and operators alike. The prospects of a larger iPhone will inevitably please the masses, but the pressure is certainly on for Tim Cook to pull some inventive and original ideas out of the bag. If these launches do occur, operators are facing a lot of potential work to be the frontrunners of the mobile race but there’s big rewards to be reaped.

In summary there is a lot of potential upside, but a lot of potential work on the horizon if this all comes to pass. And just when you thought you had things easy with iOS.