Watch out XBOX Live, Apple will be releasing it’s own gaming platform through Apple TV according to a recent posting on AppleInsider. I am very excited about this because the last time I used my Apple to game was for Oregon Trail, Duke Nukem, and Pax Imperia.

Apple TV’s future as a casual gaming platform

PopCap Games, the first authorized iPod game developer, has reportedly lured Microsoft’s Greg Canessa to head up its console and handheld divisions as the vice president of video game platforms.

In an interview with Wired, Canessa, who gave birth to Xbox Live Arcade during his time at Microsoft, singled out Apple TV as a platform he expects to embrace casual gaming over the next five years.

As part of his new position, Canessa said he will be “taking the stable of franchises and games out of PopCap’s studio and adapting, customizing it for different platforms — adding multiplayer, new play modes, HD, customizing the user interface and display for Zune, ipod, Apple TV, Nintendo DS, PSP.”

“[Casual games] are going to continue to grow into non-core demographics,” he added. “This is relevant as it pertains to devices that are not currently earmarked as gaming devices: mobile, set-top boxes, Apple TV, MP3 players and other devices in the home that will reach the non-gamer – people who don’t think they want to play.”

Steve Jobs took the bull by its horns and made a bold statement through Apple.com today (you can see the full version here).

Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music.

It’s about time! Lets see what the big 4 labels say….

Apple shipped 1,606,000 Macintosh® computers and 21,066,000 iPods during the quarter, representing 28 percent growth in Macs and 50 percent growth in iPods over the year-ago quarter. Impressive! Even more impressive, look at the financials:

Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2007 first quarter ended December 30, 2006. The Company posted record revenue of $7.1 billion and record net quarterly profit of $1.0 billion, or $1.14 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $5.7 billion and net quarterly profit of $565 million, or $.65 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 31.2 percent, up from 27.2 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 42 percent of the quarter’s revenue. (taken from the official press release)

Not bad. I like the growth that Apple is experiencing. Dropping the “Computers” from their name allows them to continue this high growth trajectory by branching into other areas (as long as they execute well). There is no doubt the iPhone is going to sell due to aesthetics, however, many folks are arguing the “openness” of the iPhone and that it mirrors the early closed eco-system Apple computers. There is a great blog posting by Charlie O’Donnell (Oddcast) that talks about open technologies and how they actually do not really matter… be sure to check it out over here.
Will it continue?

This will probably get drowned out in all the coverage about Apple (which includes the launch of their beautiful iPhone which I’ll blog about when every other blog stops gallivanting about it) but I think Apple dropping “Computer” from their name is monumental, even more so than their latest phone.

Apple does not want to be known as a computer company any longer. Yes, they create amazing and beautiful computers, but they also have a huge product lineup and extensions that go away from the typical MacBook Pro. iTunes has had 2 billion songs downloaded, iPhone is now here (the voicemail feature sounds phenomenal), and iLife is changing the way people use their computer.
I’m excited at the prospects of Apple Inc.’s future and I look forward to seeing them grab more market share of the industry and give Microsoft, Google, and others a run for their money.

Also, there is something very interesting to note…. Steve Jobs is NOT wearing black. Wow. It’s a new day for Apple.

Gotta love rumors and speculation but I think this holds some truth… Apple is moving back into the video game market. According to AppleInsider, Apple has been on a hiring rampage of game developers at both the hardware and software levels. It makes quite a bit of sense as the iPOD can play games so why not own the entire value chain (instead of licensing out for games). The iPOD could go right after the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP. This would be a very interesting battle, especially if the IPOD becomes the rumored phone… then a true all-in-one device.