Well, it can be one, of sorts. I’m not sure if it is Apple’s intention to go that direction yet. They certainly didn’t push that hard in their presentation, but this is possibly a trial run for something bigger down the line. The problems are that you have have to use a cable, so that limits how far away you can be from the TV you are using. Also, it might be difficult to play some of the games out there for the iPhone and iPad today without looking down at your iPad screen a lot to see what you are doing with the touch controls.

It will be interesting to see if some developers will add functionality to their games to aid in remote display and visibility with the Digial AV Adapter. We may also see developers enable your iPhone or iPod Touch to be used as a wireless controller for the game on your iPad. This has already been done, and would make even more sense in this case. We also have the existing jailbreak emulators that work with Nintendo’s bluetooth WiiMote for remote control with physical buttons. There is even the finally released iControlPad, which acts as a bluetooth controller for any developer (probably jailbreak only for now) that wants to enable it. So, the tech is out there to make the experience a little better.

I am wondering if this is really just a warning shot by Apple, with a new, more app and gaming centric Apple TV with Video Mirroring built into AirPlay coming this Fall. With two very capable remote display options available, I think game developers will really get on-board with this in numbers and Apple will officially be entered into the gaming console market, even if they only stay on the low-end of it.