Neil Hughes
Google's response to Apple's Game Center was announced on Wednesday in the form of Google Play game services, a cross-platform series of developer tools that will support iOS as well as Android and the Web.
Google Play game services are a new family of application programming interfaces the company will make available to developers today. With the APIs, developers will be able to allow gamers to pick up where they left off in a title, no matter what device they're playing on.
For example, a player's progression and game state achieved while playing on an Android tablet could be synced in the cloud, allowing that player to pick up where they left off when accessing the same title on their iPhone.
The new game services tools for Google Play include cloud saves, much like Apple's iCloud allows developers to save and sync data remotely.
The APIs also offer achievements and leaderboards, much like Apple's Game Center. And Google will also integrate those features with its Google+ social networking service, giving gamers another way to compare their progress with friends.
Using Google+ circles, gamers on Android, iOS and the Web will also be able to find their friends and invite them to play against one another in cross-platform online multiplayer sessions.
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22 Comments
So is AI going to have a separate article for every single Google I/O announcement?
Isn't this supposed to be "Apple" Insider?
Google is eating Apple's lunch.
Apple seems in a paralysis.
This is really awesome of Google.
I'm using almost exclusively Google apps. Chrome on OS X and iOS. Almost all of Google's apps on iOS. Safari is terrible compared to Chrome. I just wish I could make Chrome my default iOS app.
What is Apple doing? Mac Pro? Their apps on OS X are getting poor reviews. Maps...
I will probably always use Apple products, but it seems like someone at the top is not looking at the portfolio and seeing what they have and not looking at reviews of their products.
Someone said that Apple is fast if you are going in reverse (former employee), but they seem to be going even "faster".
Patrick
Seems very relevant. Apple's game center never got much traction, so Google offering a platform that works on both iOS and Android is interesting.
Google is eating Apple's lunch.
Apple seems in a paralysis.
This is really awesome of Google.
I'm using almost exclusively Google apps. Chrome on OS X and iOS. Almost all of Google's apps on iOS. Safari is terrible compared to Chrome. I just wish I could make Chrome my default iOS app.
What is Apple doing? Mac Pro? Their apps on OS X are getting poor reviews. Maps...
I will probably always use Apple products, but it seems like someone at the top is not looking at the portfolio and seeing what they have and not looking at reviews of their products.
Someone said that Apple is fast if you are going in reverse (former employee), but they seem to be going even "faster".
Patrick
>>Apple seems in paralysis>>
Understatement to say the least. 70,000+ employees, all the cash and resources anyone could ever wish for and they are just getting their butts kicked lately and seemingly have no ability or desire to react. My hunch is they want whatever they are working on 'perfect' before it is released, but the market will demolish the stock if they roll out incremental improvements to the current lineup. Everyone here needs to come to grips with reality, as does management. A LOT of people want a large screen iPhone. Apple needs to swallow its pride and follow Samsung's lead and offer one. More and more you are seeing people watching movies, playing games on the larger phones. Just returned from Vegas where I swear every Asian person seemed to have a Samsung large screen phone. Despite this trend being well over a year old, there are no signs Apple cares to give its customers what they want. They will alienate customers with the arrogance they are showing. If plummeting earnings don't wake them up, one has to wonder what will. The level of incompetence and mismanagement is amazing. Did Forstall's guidance really set back iOS in such a fashion that its going to take a couple years to fix the damage he caused?
Apple -20% ytd vs S&P +16% vs Google +28% vs Samsung -1.5%
Enterprise value: Apple $256 billion, Google $254 billion. Apple drops another $2 or Goog rises another $8 or a combination of both and Google become the king of the tech hill. This is no short collusion, this isn't because Samsung has people on message boards knocking Apple. Investors have lost confidence in Tim Cook and don't believe the recent earnings weakness can be reversed. Buyside analyst believe gross margins are headed below 30%. More than 60% of the largest holders of the stock as of 12/31 have been selling. Long-term supporters of this company are exiting in droves. Capital Group sold 7.8 million shares in the quarter as the stock dropped like a rock, more than half its position, Welington, Invesco, JP Morgan, Fidelity are all dumping the stock like crazy. Sell-off's aren't seen as a buying opportunity in this name any longer. Investors are jumping ship as quick as possible and there simply isn't enough people that want to buy the stock right now and for good reason, nobody knows if Tim Cook is capable of righting the ship.