I'm not seeing it at all. Everything the iPod, iPhone and iPadd currently do, Nintendo did first with the DS and Wii. Soon enough they'll release the iPhone 5 with a 3D screen and everyone will forget the 3DS actually came before it.
The iOS devices are popular, but those games are so cheap that as far as financial impact goes they're somewhat limited... and most of those games sell miniscule numbers too. That's no videogame industry most core gamers want to be a part of... and anyway, Jobs and Apple, more influential to the industry than so many other, actually deserving things? Yeah... right.
And if this is supposed to be a historical list, and not just "as it is right now", it's even more insanely ludicrous of course. The press/tech field's Apple-adoration needs to stop, but obviously it looks like it won't be doing so anytime soon. :(
What the fuck am I reading. This is spoon fed PR for apple's push in to a unilateral focus on gaming, how best to walk that path than to simply claim you were on that path to begin with. Feebs, I bet they'll get there with a strong contender eventually but dear god I will shit on those attempts with gusto. I can't stand Apple, they're the Nike of electronics.
The fact is, gaming journalists are a joke among journalists. Just compare a game review to a professional movie review. Sure I may disagree with Ebert on just about everything, but the man's honest and isn't afraid to give his unvarnished opinion. They're an advertising branch now, not to be taken seriously. About the only thing most of them offer at this point is videos of the games they're talking about. That's the only reason to bother checking them out ,they still seem to be the only way to actually get the pre-approved company product packets the game developers want you to see.
That said, Apple isn't some evil boogey man. The reason they're so popular is because their products really are very well designed. Nintendo has even copied the Apple aesthetic a lot recently (from UI to system form). However, it goes too far to say they're incredible innovators. It's a joke that Jobs was so angry about Google's Android "stealing" their ideas when their interface is just a refined version of previous work. The integration of a touch screen coincidentally came shortly after the DS came along. Their big improvement was multi-touch, which Nintendo mistakenly didn't implement in their 3DS. That said, Apple's refusal to include a stylus is a mistake of their own (and don't say the tech wouldn't work, it's easy to find a coating for a stylus that would work on a capacitance touch screen). While I can easily use my finger on my 3DS (Yes I have one now), I prefer to use the stylus for a number of activities simply because it prevents me from smudging up the screen. Humans are disgusting oily bags. Further, there's no better way to write than with a stylus, which again is something Nintendo does which Apple does not. Handwriting software is a lot better than it was when the Newton came out (Eat up Martha indeed).
All in all, Apple makes good quality products, but isn't nearly as innovative as people give them credit for. And, as far as gaming goes, Steve Jobs NEVER cared about gaming anyway. There's numerous quotes indicating he never saw it as that important. Gaming took off on iTems in spite of Jobs, not because of him, and it's still awkward to play anything that requires direct character control because there are only two buttons on the thing.
Hmm, there's one other thing to consider. The "App Market" sure has changed the focus on how to sell games. The pricing and exposure are changed quite a bit thanks to that. Game companies may be focusing on the "bottom line" innovations more than the actual gaming innovations.
Even then Apple's not really responsible for the big scene change either. That first came along with XBox Live Arcade and Steam's store.
I think all these company "vets" were trying to be polite by naming a big name that recently died.