Apple was all alone out there for the longest time, but the tables turned last year. The strong interest in the Ouya and other similar ventures that have come along since then have shown that real people are willing to pay real money for a compelling inexpensive home gaming system that doesn’t even technically exist yet. I’m one of them. I backed the Ouya, and I am very excited to see how it turns out. Heck, even if it only becomes an awesome emulator payer with a good wireless controller, then it will be worth the $100 for me.

However, if this thing does turn out to be a mainstream hit, It will be a problem for Apple on two fronts. First, if Apple is unwilling to either release or at least make it easier to use physical game controllers, then the Ouya will have a distinct advantage over the similarly priced Apple TV. Ouya “getting there first” could be a big impediment to Apple gaining wide adoption of the Apple TV as a gaming system.

Then there is the bigger problem. The Ouya will have its own app store to buy games. however, if developers have success developing for it, what is going to stop them from just porting the games over to Google Play and the Amazon Appstore? Nothing. In fact, it would be stupid not too.

This would be a big blow for Apple, too. Even though a lot of the big app titles can now be found on both platforms, Apple still has a HUGE current advantage in gaming. Not all of the biggest titles make it over to Android, or at least aren’t universally available across all devices. If the Ouya and similar devices gain traction, it could be a huge boost to the Android gaming ecosystem, in general.

Long story short, Apple needs to get off its ass on this, and soon. The Ouya will be available from Amazon to anyone that wants one by the time Apple would normally announce such a large update, so who knows. Maybe it’s already too late on this front. I hope not.