If tech-types have a national pasttime, forgoing activities like football and baseball that take us away from our screens, it's speculating on what Apple might do next.

So it's no surprise that, given the intense attention being given to game consoles, someone would opine that the House that Steve Jobs Built might be thinking about throwing its hat into the gaming ring.

Prudential Financial analyst Jesse Tortora did just that Monday, according to an article reported at AppleInsider.com.

Tortora says he believes Apple is already working its busy little noggins on how to capture some of the gaming market, given that the company has recently announced that it will make video games available on iPods via the iTunes Store.

From the article:

"The game console device could be morphed out of some combination of the MacMini and iTV, while the handheld player could be developed as an enhancement to a future version of the widescreen iPod," the analyst explained.

Question is whether the market is already oversaturated. If a handheld device, Apple would have a hard time wresting the market share from the Nintendo DS. If a home console, its arch-rival Microsoft pretty much owns that game, with Sony and Nintendo already biting at its heels.

The pervasiveness of the iTunes Store and Apple's history of slick, efficient electronic devices does give Apple a distinct advantage over any other new contender thinking of entering the field, but would it be enough?

Of course, this is all speculation by one analyst. It also could be a crock of bull.

[From AppleInsider]