Consoles aren't that profitable. For Apple standards, the profits generated from consoles would be a tiny fraction of their total profits. There really isn't a point for them to get into the already competitive market.

Probably not.

Spot on.

Apple creates markets, they don't enter them.

They wouldn't make a video game system unless it was like the Wii.

...They entered the cell phone market. You can go on about them "creating the smart phone market," but what they really did was revolutionize the cell phone market. Who's to say they couldn't do the same for consoles. If any company had the balls to try and sell a digital-only home console, it would be Apple. And all they'd have to do is make their iConsole absorb their Apple TV the same way the iPhone absorbed the iPod.

If they really could get good support from 3rd parties, I'd buy it.

http://youtu.be/hlxgD-gvvXE

This is a video on how Apple could go about entering the console market. While I think Apple would be more ambitious (like creating a real controller and building a console with usable RAM and all that jazz), it does help to visualize how this could work. I think they could pull it off.

Consoles are no longer relevant. All Apple needs to do is make it easy-peasy to stream games through iPad/phone onto TV.

It would be a step back into the past for Apple to launch a traditional console now. The future is game streaming, and that doesn't need a dedicated device.

By that logic the ipad just revolutionized the laptop market and apps just revolutionized the handheld gaming market.

No, I don't think that, but we'd be arguing over semantics. Revolutionize or create, they're still completely changing the game. That's why I said their system would have to be like the Wii. Nintendo's system ended up being a fad, but it still created its own market/ecosystem instead of competing with the other consoles.

The iConsole couldn't just be a better PS4. For it to follow trends from recent Apple products, it'd need to be a whole new experience.

Digital-only is certainly not that. The only revolution there is the lack of an inexpensive disc drive. Also that video was kinda amussing, considering the end talking about ouya.

Could they? Sure. But I honestly don't think the market is big enough to support four major gaming consoles. I honestly don't think it's big enough to support three.

Also, like Dr. Henry said. They don't price to compete. A big part of Apples success is the willingness of the customer to pay more because it's Apple. That wouldn't fly in the gaming world.

When Jobs was forced out of Apple. the company tanked. When he came back, the world got the iMac,iPod,iPhone and iPad. See the difference?

I still have hope for it to happen some day... It would be awesome.