If it happened,and if another company wanted to fill in the empty space....which company do you think/suspect would be the most likely one to do so?

Google, Sega (Unlikely, but a possibility), IBM, Apple.

Apple. Reason is, it did it before (as a general multimedia player but it still qualifies), but didn't put the "Mac difference" into it so it's got reason to try again if the management thought it was worth it. It's the master of marketing in new markets: iPod, iPhone, Apple TV; so consoles would be interesting. I don't like Apple, but it's always good to see new competition so it can be floored by Nintendo. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Pippin

Yeah, I think either apple, or longshot google would be the one to jump in.

Microsoft would be the most likely to bail out seeing as how the Xbox brand has lost them billions, and still has yet to become profitable. If the 360 doesn't succeed, they might just cut their losses.

EA, Samsung(I believe they support the WCG, so it doesn't seem unlikely). Maybe the Phantom finally shows up if there is more space in the market, if the Xbox brand goes down due to to much losses, the Phantom could fill the American console-gap.

Philips has had some bad memory's with consoles in the past, but there is a chance.

A great joke would be if Square-Enix builds their own console to conquer the Japanese market. Nintendo would finally have some real competition over there then.

Apple
Samsung
Some Chinese company.

Google would be interesting but it would never happen. Either Nokia would still try to make a difference or Apple would come in (and who's to say either of these won't happen without one dropping out?).

Don't think Apple is the right company for a gaming system. Their normal way (high price, nice features and design) doesn't work that well here.

I think AMD or Intel is more likley. Both have experience in such hardware and can produce it themselves, or produce them for others right know. All they need is to buy some studios for decent first party development.

Panasonic or Samsung

I think if any company decided it would go into the hardware buiness then it would be EA.

Think about, imagine a console that that had madden as an exculsive aswell as fifa for europe