It is no secret that Apple's iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch have become strong mobile gaming devices. Millions of people use at least one of those devices to play some kind of game almost daily. Now rumors are starting back up that the company is investigating some sort of game controller for use on their iOS devices.
The rumor is coming from AnandTech's Anand Lal Shimpi in his recent review of the newest iPad and the graphical power that it can leverage for games. In his report Lal Shimpi states that he has been informed of "an internal Apple project to bring a physical controller to market." Unfortunately Lal Shimpi also says that his sources can't seem to confirm whether or not Apple is moving forward with the game controller project or if it was a scrapped idea.
The report goes on to state that Apple might be feeling pressure to create some sort of external gaming hardware after Google included support for gaming peripherals starting in Android 3.0 (Honeycomb). Regardless of the motivation, it does make sense for iOS to support a gaming peripheral considering just how many people are using the devices for gaming.
While companies like Sony and Nintendo are seeing slips in their software sales, Android and iOS are seeing a nearly three fold increase in U.S.-based game software revenue from 19% in 2009 to an estimated 58% by the end of 2011. Tablets and phones are quickly taking over the handheld gaming market. If Android continues to support gaming peripherals and Apple jumps on board, it would quickly further the issues Nintendo and Sony are having in the mobile gaming market.
Time will tell if Apple decides to fully commit in iOS as a gaming platform by producing some sort of controller or supporting third party devices with a dongle. Considering how often I play games on my iPad I might just be interested in a device like this. Would you use a controller with your iOS device? Let us know in the comments.
