It was only natural for people to begin speculating on Apple's attempt to roll out a dedicated gaming device, following the company's filing to protect their trademark in relation games and its devices. However, a deeper analysis of the clues at hand has revealed that Apple seeks only to cover their iPod game sales. Apple gaming system? No. New 3rd party games? Most likely.

According to Develop Magazine, Apple isn't interested as much in introducing a dedicated gaming device, as it is in protecting its reputation and build upon what they've achieved thus far, not changing their strategy one bit:

"Apple is very protective of the reputation it has built in the electronics market," said Develop's sources familiar with Apple's conversations with software companies, who wished to remain anonymous. "So don't hold your breath for an announcement of an 'iGame' console just yet."

The same source goes on mentioning that (some of you may find this a bit strange), from a hardware point of view, the iPod is already "powerful enough" as a games platform, noting it uses OpenGL ES for graphics. Sure enough iPods are great for games such as PopCap's casual titles, but people always want more, so what the source is probably implying is that Apple is satisfied with what the iPod can currently offer and how people are responding to its offerings.

"From our discussions, it seems Apple is happy working the way it does, courting individual companies and handpicking who it thinks can make the best games or has the best development abilities when it comes to growing the stable of iPod games - although I wouldn't rule out Apple beefing up that approach and commissioning more games for its portable devices," the source goes on to mention.

Undoubtedly, Apple will establish more iPod-based relationships with renowned developers and publishers, will look to add more games to its touchscreen-enabled devices, and will handpick even more people to carry on assigned tasks for the same devices. The only question that remains is "Who?" Who are those lucky ones to be taking on Apple's devices and bless them with gaming code? Come on SDK!