It seems we have a new competitor in the social competitive gaming platforms. The big three: Xbox Live, PSN, and Steam, are to be expecting Apple’s new platform to drop in and try it’s hand out in this game. Right now, it is tough to say if Apple can cut a significant slice of this market away from the other big names.

Naturally, Steve Jobs announced this upcoming platform for the next iPhone/iPad firmware at an Apple event hosted by his company. Their aims are to bring a lobby system similar to Xbox Live to their selection of games. Apple is also touting that they are building in support for the Game Center into the toolkits provided to developers of iPhone/iPad software in an attempt to get an edge over the other competitors.

iPhone and iPad users, sit down and discuss what this means to you and how you think you will use it. This next update is scheduled (as of right now) for launch next week. We’ll see if Apple is ready to make this step or if they need to iron some things out first. It ultimately will fall down to the developers to take advantage of this new feature set.