If you're into the business side of gaming, you might be interested in this piece of news: in BusinessWeek's list of The World's Most Innovative Companies, Microsoft ranked above its competitors in the video game industry, Nintendo and Sony. Guess who topped the list? Apple. (Cue whooping from Mac users.) Details in the full article.

Although it may not be apparent, Apple isn't reeling in major profits on any of the Apple TV units they sell. Literally. According to Business Week, research firm iSuppli purchased a unit for US$ 299 and took it apart piece by piece. What they found was that the seemingly pricey Apple TV tag wasn't a Benjamin apart from the total of its parts.

An Apple TV's parts, when broken down and arranged quite neatly, has been found to cost no more than US$ 237 all in all. That's just US$ 62 from the retail price tag (a 20% gross profit margin), although it doesn't include administrative, marketing and production costs.

That's a big leap from most of Apple's 50% gross profit margins for products not related to its consumer computer solutions. Analyst Andrew Rassweiler of iSuppli remarked, "This is certainly a departure for Apple, or at least it's approaching a departure."

"We made some very aggressive assumptions with this device, and by that I mean we assumed low prices on the components," added Rassweiler. When Apple's Steve Jobs said that the Apple TV is a hobby, he probably wasn't joking at all. It may have been more convincing, though, if there were tears.

A lot of people in the gaming circuit have already made up their minds on the question of which gaming company is the most innovative of them all. However, it's a different take in the eyes of business executives around the world as Business Week conducted a survey on which companies did the most to bring new products that made sense to consumers.

Apple led the bunch with a comfortable margin over second-placer Google. As far as game-related enterprises are concerned, Microsoft led the way. It was fifth on the overall standings by virtue of software advances. Amazingly, there was no mention of games in the explanation.

Sony was at the tenth spot powered by its new PlayStation 3 console.The magazine says that it took gaming technology to the next level by transforming the game system series into a gateway to a virtual world. The reference was probably aimed at the PlayStation Home system, but hey, hasn't that been done by Second Life and Miis by Nintendo already?

Nintendo lagged behind at the 39th spot with its independence from sequels and its ability to appeal to all age groups.Yes, we know what you're thinking. Go ahead and post them in the comments section.

As campaigned by himself almost a year ago, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer is now making good on his promise to make way for violent videogame legislation. As reported by Business Week:

Gov. Eliot Spitzer will take a shot at violent videos and video games as part his remaining 2007 legislative agenda that includes campaign finance reform, streamlining the courts, and energy development.

Spitzer said he will soon provide a bill that would target the ratings of video movies and video games "that are often violent and degrading" and can hurt children who repeatedly use and view them.

The BusinessWeek report later notes that:

Spitzer said he wants to restrict access to these videos and games by children, similar to motion picture regulations which prohibit youths under 17 from being admitted to R-rated movies without a parent or adult guardian.

Under Spitzer's proposal, retailers who sell violent or degrading videos or video games to children contrary to the rating would be sanctioned.

The Democrat said his approach would be similar to greater enforcement in recent years to stop the sale of cigarettes to minors.

GamesPolitics noted a year ago (back when they were still in LiveJournal) that Spitzer also mentioned in his campaigning that he wishes that there be a uniform rating standard for multiple forms of media. He said then: "industry leaders like the... the (ESRB) for videogames... should come together to set uniform rating standards across all forms of media."

Well two things we should point out. First off, what if there is indeed a universal ratings system, and then violence still occurs because parents still buy (the big problem with this "retailers sell only to 18 and up" suggestion) their kids violent videogames, what then?

Moreover, cigarettes are proven to be harmful to the health of human beings, minor or not. The harmful effect of videogames on the other hand, is still an assumption.

Let's face it, Apple has never been a giant presence when it comes to gaming, but things are definitely starting to look up. The iPhone's announcement in January has also started speculation about whether or not it will be able to play games.

While Apple has yet to reveal any details regarding their plans for gaming on the iPhone, Business Week reports that the company is currently in talks with a few well-known game developers and publishers.

According to Business Week, Mitch Lasky, senior vice-president of EA Mobile, says his company is discussing plans for games on the phone. "We have been talking to Apple about games on (the iPhone)," Lasky says. "We see a lot of the technology that we've utilized on the iPod side being incorporated into the iPhone."

Electronic Arts expanded its mobile gaming business through last year's purchase of independent mobile publisher JAMDAT Mobile, later rebranded as EA Mobile.

It's old news that the people at iTunes have been thinking about making movies into another staple of iTunes goodness. We even mentioned a rumor about the iTunes selling movies to the public.

Well, let's make it official then. According to Business Week, Apple and iTunes are coming out with a movie-selling service, with an official announcement halfway through this month.

Their prices are supposed to be slated at $14.99 for new movies, and $9.99 for older ones. They might even make a new iPod to make the feature even more enticing to consumers, so it sounds like a good sell.

There's only one problem. Wal-Mart is not happy with these developments. As one of the largest sellers of DVDs in America, they stand to take a significant hit in revenue if this spreads, so there seems to be a tug-of-war going on right now to keep Wal-Mart pleased and selling Apple goods while getting iTunes out with a movie-selling function.

Keep checking QJ for more info as we have them.

If you ask Seagate, news of the impending death of hard drives (caused by the impending domination of NAND-type flash memory chips) is grossly exaggerated. Otherwise, the company wouldn't have announced its big plan for 2007, which includes 60 to 120GB drives for handheld video devices such as Apple's iPod video.

In an interview with Business Week, Seagate expressed faith in hard drives despite prediction that HD technology will give way to high-capacity flash memory. The company cited that the big three NAND flash memory makers in the world (Samsung, SanDisk, and Toshiba) are investing big money on their respective disk-drive business with no plans of shelving them .

Seagate believes HD will be around for a long time because they are cheaper. Seagate CEO William Watkins said, "It will be a price-per-gigabyte battle...if they can make a 4-GB for $5, then it's $20 for 32 GB, and $40 for 64 GB. On the other hand... when we do a single-platter, 100-GB notebook drive, well it doesn't cost me very much to go to 200 GB. All I have to do is add another platter. It's very cheap for me to go up."

Business Week reported that Apple's brand value went up by 14% last year raising its position in the magazine's Best Global Brand Survey from No. 39th to 41.  According to Business Week, the company continues to be "the style master with its expanded family of iPods and Macs. Its latest hit: the MacBook line of laptops."  Apple's brand equity is currently valued at $9.13 billion.

The annual BusinessWeek/Interbrand rankings measure an elusive but crucial quality known as brand value. This year's list includes Coca-Cola (No.1), Microsoft (No.2) and IBM (No.3). Other brands that made the cut are Motorola, Hyundai, Google, and McDonald's.

For Business Week, it's the Wii that triumphs over the PS3, at least according to the online edition of the paper. The report states that while the Playstation 2 is still holding the current-gen crown, the "disruptive approach" Nintendo has taken with the Wii may prove highly successful, similar to the DS. But the report also noted that the handheld and console markets are different, and the problem that was the GameCube - now seeing sales as low as 10,000 in one quarter - could duplicate once again.

Another selling point for Business Week was the "games aimed at a wider audience," similar to the Touch! Generations titles on the DS, which have essentially changed the meaning of "mainstream" with regard to videogames. An analyst at KBC commented on the audience Nintendo is trying to gain: "Non-gamers are coming back because there are interesting games people want to play. The PSP is a beautiful piece of kit but the games are just rehashes of what you would play on the console."

The report also stated that the raw power of the Playstation 3 will attract the hardcore gaming audience, but in comparison to the potential Nintendo sees in "average families" with no video game experience, that is, if you think about it, an almost forgettable small audience.

It looks like all the "different audiences" talk by Nintendo really amounts to nothing, because in the end, it's all about the money, and sharing the same market means competition, no matter how different the approaches.