Half-Life and Portal developer Gabe Newell thinks Apple will make traditional consoles obsolete via some kind of 'living-room product'

During a recent tech conference, Valve MD Gabe Newell shared his belief that tech giant Apple will render all current traditional consoles obsolete by releasing a brand-new piece of hardware.

"I suspect Apple will launch a living-room product that redefines people's expectations really strongly and the notion of a separate console platform will disappear," Newell said.

Despite his predictions, Newell does have several reservations about the possible device, specifically relating to Apple's closed platform.

"I'm worried that the things that traditionally have been the source of a lot of innovation are going. There's going to be an attempt to close those off so somebody will say, 'I'm tired of competing with Google, I'm tired of competing with Facebook, I'll apply a console model and exclude the competitors I don't like from my world'," he stated.

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Apple does already have a 'living-room' product of sorts in the form of the Apple TV. It's not difficult to imagine this device running the same apps and games that you currently play on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch at some point in the relatively near future.

It is, of course, possible to stream your App Store titles directly to your big-screen TV using Apple's AirPlay technology right now, and once iOS 5 goes live (later today), you'll be able to pipe content from an iOS device to a HD TV wirelessly.