iPad 4 doubles the power, but what developers will use it?

Alongside the much-touted iPad mini, Apple dropped a new iPad 4 on the world. A device no one needs, is ready for, and certainly no games developers will  be working toward. The power of the iPad 3 means games developers wanting to take advantage of that power (for intense graphics, deeper AI, better physics and so on) will be on quite long development cycles for those games.

Dropping the iPad 4 on them and going "hey, have twice as much power" will be welcome, if they were anywhere near maxing out the iPad 3 (of which there is little evidence). But that raw iPad 4 power will sit dormant for at least a generation of games, if not two, untapped and unloved.

The extra CPU and GPU horsepower from the A6X processor might be a call to arms to more mainstream developers (with 100 million iPads now sold, that's a tempting market) but without a proper controller there is still no sign of the iPad become a mainstream game device.

Apple may well reveal a controller alongside the Apple HDTV models next year, which makes more sense, but until then this looks like a big fat waste of processor cycles with no apparent benefit to anyone. As for the iPad mini (pictured), that rates between and iPad 2 and 3 on the power scale, so will be fine for casual gaming, but will disappoint anyone who think they can play the cutting edge titles, or enjoy retina-level gaming as it only has a 1024x768 resolution.

Apple developing in-house controller for iOS devices

While it may never see a launch, Apple has been outed as having an iOS controller under development. In his review of the new iPad, industry veteran Anand Shimpi mentions:

"I know of an internal Apple project to bring a physical controller to market, but whether or not it will ever see the light of day remains to be seen. As smartphones and tablets come close to equalling the performance of current game consoles, I feel like the controller problem must be addressed."

That's hardly a leap of great logic, I'm sure Apple has cunning types developing everything from iToasters to whole Earth replacement planets in its labs. But, with the race on for the next generation console (with Sony PS4 and XboxNext news increasing in frequency and solidity), all Apple has to do is pop out its new controller in time for the iPhone 5 or iPad 4, or the Apple HDTV range and you instantly have a games console without the ugly box.

Apple also has the infrastructure in place for secure digital sales with iTunes, with a little work GameCenter could be a decent gaming service and could offer thousands of games instead of a usual console launch roster of 20-30 titles.

That would shake up the market massively and could see gamers buying a lot of Apple gear to replace clunky traditional consoles and with very first first-party-only developers, Apple has the clout to get most games franchises on its wares.