It appears to me that mentioning Apple in an actual videogame website and as a videogame player in the industry is usually received with a disdain reaction. But please allow me to explain what I mean here...

I believe 2011 has been one of the most disappointing years in the history of videogames, and that's not due to lack of content, in fact I would say 2011 has been one of the best years in gaming. But the real problem is that despite 2011 being highly rich in terms of content, so far, none of the games seem to have made much of an impact in the industry.

We see great games coming by and being forgotten in just a matter of days, and while we could say that because this generation of consoles have been around for more than half a decade, it has run its course, but I believe the real issue here is the rise of Apple and how the image of videogame has been changed in just a very short while.

As an owner of iPad 2, and iPod Touch 4G, I dislike Apple as a company, and for all the credits most people give them, I don't think Apple has so far made anything groundbreaking or truly innovative. I think they have made one great product; iOS, and that product is great mainly because of the support it has.

Apple never showed any real interest in the gaming industry, heck, they even refused the tech behind Kinect when it was proposed to them first; they simply lacked the motivation to seriously enter this crowded market. But now, when you look at it, it’s Apple this and Apple that, and the history of how Apple became a game player is amusing, because their entrance to this market was a complete luck. The fact is, early on, Apple did not even position iPhone or iPod Touch as a gaming machine, and they didn't even start their App Store until around a year of their release. Apple themselves have said that they started to market iPod Touch and to a lesser extent, iPhone, as a gaming machine after the huge traffic of game applications was seen post App Store launch.

That just shows how random their entrance into gaming market has been, and now, because of them, the actual gaming market seems to be dwindling to the point that it may soon become irrelevant. It saddens me how everyone, even within the industry, is trying to compare how Angry Bird outsells every major release. Angry Bird is not even a game; it’s more like a mini-game within an actual game which is unlocked as an extra. I have been baffled by those comparisons because I have those "great" iOS games and I don't see them to be really comparable to what we have considered as videogame in this industry.

Day after day though, reality is kicking in further and further. Apple is now universally considered a videogame player, and they seem to have tarnished the gaming image by lowering the standards and making it like all games should be $0.99. This industry simply can't push forward with such price schemes, and that's because the development costs on actual games are way way higher than what one person creates in his basement.

Handheld platforms are the biggest victims here; 3DS have so far failed to make a big impact in the industry. And I believe Vita wouldn't fare much better unless things go extremely well for Sony. PSVita, in particular, would be a good testament to see how much Apple and smartphones have impacted handhelds, because Vita can do everything iOS and smartphone games can, but far better, with actual buttons, and only $20 more expensive than the entry iPod Touch.

So realistically speaking here, do you think Apple has impacted the real game industry? If yes, how much of an impact do you think they will have in this industry going forward?

accidentally?!?! I'm sorry but their entry was well planned and deliberate.

Is it why they still haven't produced one single game and they don't own one first-party game development team?

I don't even consider them part of the gaming industry, I class their 'games' as apps.

You're pretty bang on here. Apple did blunder into video games, though they were clever enough to realize what they'd stumbled upon and adapt strategy to take advantage.

Not sure how hard mobile gaming will hit the established gaming market, but I think at the minimum it will cut off its growth. Dedicated handheld consoles will probably contract severely, especially if they insist on pricing them higher than an iPod Touch, but I still think there will still be a place for specialized gaming hardware in the living room.

But I have to answer your concerns with a question: If people are having fun with $0.99 games, and developers of said games are making money, what's so terrible? You dismiss Angry Birds as shallow, but it actually has more depth than the game that launched mobile gaming back in the '80s: Tetris. All iOS is doing is leveling the playing field between indie developers who could never get retail distribution and mega-publishers who can.

If there's demand for more sophisticated games on mobile devices, then sophisticated games will get made. If you want a kickass WRPG for your iPad, check out Avadon: The Black Fortress.

considering. Chaos Rings is on it which is better than a ton of psp or ds rpg's imo. And some really nifty puzzle games. And angry birds is a game on ps3 is it no. I don't see why it wouldn't count as a gaming platform. Prefferred most definitely not.

I don't think it will kill it. Or has killed. it There's still a ton of different games being released. And 1 dollar games won't have cutting edge graphics or production values. And if they do. Then I sure hope all games become one dollar.

An industry, in this economy can't expect to have 8 figure budgets for game creation, if not 9 figures, and not expect to have large degree of fallout with studios closing.  They have to run smaller budgets and come up with games that can say sell a few hundred thousand and studios not go under.   What you have with Apple is a platform for smaller budget games to be able to survive and developers not go under.  If the response is the lack of "production value" and you don't get a movie-like experience, then so be it.  If the market can't bear this, then you won't get it.  People can yell at Angry Birds all the way, but if that is what people want, that is what they get.

And Angry Birds is more of a game in the traditional sense of the word than Uncharted, or Heavy Rain.  It is a game people play for score.  You interact and try to beat it, and you advance on to the next level.  

"We see great games coming by and being forgotten in just a matter of days". I think it might be because there are too many games at some points and for that reason people kinda get distracted with so many information that they don`t focuse properly. See the usual release list for September onwards.

About Apple, yes i think that Apple did affect the gaming market because it ended up providing a gaming console - a portable one -, but with some "big", important differences like the appstore for games and music. Why then, downloadble games didn`t work for PSP Go? Probably because it just couldn`t compete in number and quality with the Ipad and company in downloadble games or in time to download games. Don`t think it was even targeted for that market, too.
In general Apple offered what Wii offered: quick and fun gaming. And all a click away from you wherever you were - think of Wii U. Portability was a huge factor for the success of it`s gaming "division". That and the price of games.
If you had an Apple product where you could for a few dollars experiment/try some games, wouldn`t you? Seems like a lot did that and even found value on that. I repeat, found value on that!

How much will this impact the home consoles or the portable ones? Honestly, it will probably impact more the portable consoles than the home consoles ones, given the difference in gaming experience. Also, seems to be a gaming market/experience that core gamers appreciate more. Fidelity!
The portable consoles seem to be in real peril. It`s still portable console(3DS, VITA) vs portable gaming device (IPad, etc.). What will really make a difference here is how Nintendo and Sony attract the more casual market with their consoles. NDS was a big hit because it managed to appeal to those gamers.

Overall, the gaming market as we know it won`t change drastically because there are people who still enjoy those kinds of gaming experiences. Of course, if these same consoles don`t live up to current trends they might be seen as secondary in gaming experiences and that could put them in trouble.

...i'm sorry, did i read your OP wrong or did you not already state that apple has entered the games industry.  when did the criterion of first-party come in?  onLive is must certainly in the industry as well ... where is there first party?  sony's first party is bigger than MSs  ... does that mean they are bigger in the industry instead of equals?

apple entered the games industry in they way they wanted to; in a way that has zero risk on their part, is very profitable to them, and is erroding the foundation out from under its competitors.  yes, i believe their entry was extremely well planned and deliberate.

Angry Bird can be a very addictive game, but its success, alongside most iOS games, is due to the simple fact that the game is competing with boredom, not other games. So its sales and popularity gives a wrong perception to what makes a great game in the industry.

The problem with the pricing of most iOS games (not just Angry Bird) is that they indirectly hurt the industry by not allowing much room for games with high development budget to be developed on handheld platforms, because a higher budgeted game would need a higher price point. And so I don't think Angry Bird is particularly shallow, but I think the industry, and indie developers, are getting more shallow, as everyone's trying to cash in from the iOS platform.

Searching titles like "Bird", "Tiny", "Doodle", etc. would bring you hundreds of copycats games in the App Store. I think a good example would be Gameloft and how they seem to get away with copying everything successful. You know, in the description of BackStab, it quotes a site saying "This is a game that costs £3 yet provides the same amount of entertainment and graphical brilliance as a PSP title that retails for £25", and I think that's a huge problem for the industry in long-term, because a game like this, or Shadow Guardian (which is an Uncharted clone) would make it harder for people to justify the original games' price. For example Uncharted: Golden Abyss would be at least $40, while Shadow Guardian is $5 or occasionally less, and that price disparity could potentially put the real developers out of business if they don't find success, leaving us with cheap clones and maybe an occasional great game like Cut The Rope in the handheld market.

To clarify, I know lower price is better for consumers, but here, obviously, I am talking about the overall industry.

Oh, and thanks for your suggestion, I'll try that game later to see how it is.