Why did Google get rid of the company behind Pokémon Go?

Augmented reality — tech that lets digital worlds interact with our physical one — is #Google ’s Moby Dick. Did the company let a whale slip through its fingers? By now you’ve heard of #PokémonGo, the mobile game that exploded in popularity over the weekend. Its allure comes from the ability to chase #Nintendo cartoons in real environments with a smartphone — a tangible application of augmented reality. If the game’s growth keeps up, it would be the first AR app for the masses. And those masses could have been addicted users for Google. But they’re not. Niantic Labs, the company that built the game, was formed inside the search giant but spun out on its own last fall with the formation of #Alphabet. The reasons why are very particular to the gaming company — but they also reveal some hurdles Google faces in its new experimental corporate anatomy.

http://www.recode.net/2016/7/12/12153722/google-niantic-pokemon-go-spin-out

Pokémon GO is much bigger than Nintendo— here's why

Japanese gaming giant #Nintendo has seen its stock (NTDOY) shoot up 57% in the past five days and its market cap grow by nearly $10 billion, and it’s all because of one thing: #PokémonGO. It’s a big win for a 120-year-old gaming company that has been widely criticized in recent years as irrelevant. But Pokémon GO’s success has major implications beyond Nintendo. If you’ve somehow missed the news of this viral smash hit, Pokémon GO is a new mobile game that uses augmented-reality to project animal characters onto the real world and help you hunt and catch them. The smash-hit #StarWars BB-8 toy, released by Sphero last holiday season, uses similar augmented reality in its app to display hologram messages. Pokémon first debuted in 1996 on the Nintendo Game Boy. In those games, the player, in a quest to become a Pokémon Master, would have to battle pokémon, using already-captured pokémon, in order to catch them. The new game is far simpler: No battles needed, except at training “gyms” where users can battle each other. When you find a pokémon on Pokémon Go, you simply swipe your finger up to toss a pokéball (stay with me here) at the creature and trap it. In other words, it is a far less complex game than past versions, but therein lies the brilliance.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/pokemon-nintendo-business-implications-augmented-000000901.html

Battle of the brands: Lenovo and Nintendo become the most popular firms online

The latest trend report from social monitoring firm Brandwatch has found that #Lenovo, #Nintendo and #Samsung are leading the way on social media in terms of establishing themselves as firm tech fan favourites.

#Microsoft, #LG, and #Apple are leading conversations around computers, mobile phones, and TVs, with more specialised brands like Nintendo and #Bose performing best for "audio, gaming and wearables".

But newer sectors such as drone technology and VR are still in a "constant state of flux", with the report stating brand leaders are constantly changing depending on campaigns and events.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the report also found social audiences of leading tech brands skew "heavily male".

Social influence was evaluated across a number of metrics: social visibility, general visibility, net sentiment, engagement and reach.

http://www.wired.co.uk/article/lenovo-nintendo-tech-brands