We were all a little uneasy in this industry. It was long since there was a commotion of those that change everything and that, basically, they remain the most excited us. But the wait could have come to an end. From the least expected place (I’ve said a hundred times, so it is always), a little game for smartphones just shake the hornet’s nest as has not occurred since the departure of the iPhone and social networks.
Even more interesting in the same way as with the iPhone, Internet and personal computers, all the pieces were ready to build a legendary success and, in my opinion, lay the foundation for what we will be busy for a long time. He had only to find the formula. The Pokémon Company achieved what Pokémon GO, an app available for Android and iOS, although so far only a handful of countries: Australia, New Zealand, United States, Germany and England. Read: neither they such an impact and servers collapsed expected
Corporate data to understand the plot that led to the game. The Pokémon Company is a group that Nintendo, creator of the Pokémon franchise, participates by 33 percent. The other two are Game Freak and Creatures, both Japanese. Still more interesting is the lineage of the company that produced the game. It is called Niantic and was born as an internal venture of Google, which split last year. And even more significant, Niantic is the creator of Ingress, one of the pioneers of augmented reality games. The CEO of this company estimates it will take one to two months to reach about 200 markets, which, though not explicitly said, would include Latin America, since it offered this perspective based on previous experience with Ingress, which itself is available here.
Background
Asombra also parallels with other events that marked the history of digital technology. A rule begins to appear unshakable: the disruptive developments do not arise from the consolidated companies
In 1977, all the components to create an earthquake on a global scale were there. Microprocessor and accessible memory, applications 8 bits, screens, diskettes. Only it had to combine them. But the personal computer as we know it only happened to Steve Wozniak, who designed the Apple II extraordinary when the company had one year and two months. The pressure of this computer on business giant IBM was so great that in 1981 would launch the PC.
In 1989, when Barry Shein began offering e-mail service to its customers, the TCP technology / IP (ie, Internet) was ripe, but no one had previously thought that the network of networks might be interested in the general public. Less than 10 years after it was connected virtually the entire planet.
In 2007, touch screens and mobile operating systems were not new, but it took Steve Jobs take the concept of the smartphone to the next level completely change the course of that industry. So much so that Motorola and Nokia lost all relevance and mobility divisions were passed from hand to hand. Nobody thought that a company like Apple, who was recovering from a catatonic state in which it had fallen 10 years ago and whose best-selling product was a music player (iPod) could be no match for these two behemoths.
With Pokemon GO is the same. And geolocation tags based on GPS coordinates, geocaching, mobile games and augmented reality have several years between us. In fact, they predate a dozen little games of this type. Moreover, the Pokémon franchise, which has already obtained a Nintendo revenues 46,000 million dollars, was born in 1996. In technological terms, that’s more or less the Pleistocene. And another coincidence: Niantic is a small company that has less than a year of life
Was your app to find Pokémon in the real world that fired one of the most notable successes of recent years.. In contrast to virtual reality, allowing us to get us in cyberspace, virtuality augmented reality adds to the world around us. Thus, in countries where it is officially available, these pocket monsters (Pokémon comes from Poketto and Monsta, Japanese pocket monsters) can appear anywhere. It is also possible to capture them (in the same way as in the original game), train and confront the Pokémon from other participants. Incidentally, and contrary to what the SAR holding, Pokémon is a word used interchangeably in singular and plural; thing that fans took care to clarify, resulting, predictably, in a Byzantine discussion.
Spring
But again, it had already augmented reality games. What happened with Pokémon GO? The tip of the iceberg in understanding this success increased by 15,000 million market value of Nintendo it is, of course, in augmented reality. But with a twist. As with the iPhone, its popularity is explained not only because it had a touch screen, but the idea (extreme, then) it was all screen. In the case of Pokémon GO, instead of using augmented reality to provide more information on real objects or places or to convert the public space on the stage of a game, Niantic integrated the pocket monsters to the surrounding world. It is exactly the reverse of Ingress, returning alien environment. Here, Pokémon are no longer strangers.
That is, the Pokémon seem to be really there (if the phone camera is turned on), as well as the posts for items and others. Although now seem exaggerated, Nintendo has changed the world. For those living in countries where the app is available, the phone has become a lens that allows access to a parallel reality. Moreover, those who have the app (and are aware of all this, of course) know they could be passing next to a Pokémon inadvertently. No need to explain all psychological mechanisms that trigger here.
no small part of this twist is that the Pokémon, thanks to its long history in the gaming industry, are virtual only up there . They are lovable, are cultural icons, are more real than suspected. We always wanted Pikachu materialize. Well, there you have it. Nintendo, Game Freak, Creatures and Niantic did. Fact: officially, there are 720 Pokémon (not all Pikachu), and that existence has become more consistent now that we can see them (so to speak) in the real world
There is another spring this century-old Japanese company launched with this move: the potential. Many have told me these days they did not understand what value could be the find Pokémon in a park or on the beach. Disruptive ideas is that (it was very clear with the iPhone) are the most in the future than in the present. Some see it before others and are winning with these changes. For example, the head of a pizzeria in Long Island, New York, invested $ 10 in a few module to attract Pokémon, and ensures that this increased its sales by 75%. I think
This spring disruptive phenomena is a characteristic feature. Becomes obsolete other technologies from one day to the other. As correctly noted this press Reuters, integrating new layers of reality to the physical world is a threat to companies like Groupon and Foursquare. And also, I would add, for Google and Facebook. Just ask the New York pizza.
Moreover, the large mobile wave, which completely changed the topography of the computer industry 10 years ago, suddenly emits a whiff of mothballs, because smart glasses or augmented reality helmets are much better suited to interact with a world that could now peopled with beings and virtual objects.
As each occurence of these technologies occurs, the problems were not expected. Nothing new. At the time, many years ago, the PC was accused of being the leading cause of divorce in the United States. Just as, later, Facebook.
A couple of ideas to step before closing. First, if, as seems to be the case, augmented reality finally found his killer application in the future the reality perceived by a screen, smart glasses or helmets as Holo Lens could become substantially different from reality to dry . A new breakthrough on the way, in other words.
Second, virtual pets could stop being a rarity to become new residents of the home. Not missing pooches or kittens for adoption, but not everyone can afford to have a real animal. Something like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? ?, But virtual. ¿Medical and psychiatric Applications? There seems no nonsense from the moment Gonzalo Sierra came up helping cancer patients receiving chemotherapy through virtual reality, a brilliant initiative.
Could all this be nothing more than a passing storm ? Of course, there is always that possibility. But it might not be. And that, precisely, is a disruptive idea
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