Last night a few of us braved the three-hour line at the Apple store and picked up the highly anticipated new iPhone 4’s. With our hands on the phones, we are really looking forward to tapping into all its cool innovations for our mobile projects. We can’t wait to develop optimized apps for the Retina display and design gaming concepts using the built-in gyroscope and accelerometer. We’ve also been testing out FaceTime with each other, sparking ideas for AR and social media capabilities.

With the premiere of Iron Man 2, the movie’s iPhone game is currently featured first in the App Store.

Smartphone gaming has entered into the gaming arena with a strong force. Spotting people playing games with each other through their phones is becoming as common a sight as people playing on a game console, or playing with other portable gaming devices. About 41% of smartphone users play games at least once a month, 16% play at least once a week, and 13% play everyday. There was a 35% decrease in feature phone gaming, but a 60% increase in smartphone gaming this year.

Having built an iPhone app for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, we recognize the value of casual gaming experiences for users. Our app gives LA Phil fans a fun, interactive experience that puts them in the shoes of conductor Gustavo Dudamel. The convenience of gaming on a smartphone reaches a wide demographic who aren’t necessarily avid gamers, but enjoy the experiences as an outlet of release, or a quick break from their everyday lives. It is important for developers and brand marketers to tap into that valued experience, because they could have users interacting with their brand for hours in a cross-platform environment. Mobile games can effectively have people virtually experience a brand, and have fun at the same time.

The trend of mobile gaming is currently going strong, and the upcoming release of the Apple Game Center, a social gaming network launching for the iPad and iPhone this summer, could open more opportunities for creative marketing efforts. The Game Center will become Apple’s social network that provides a space for players to connect, earn achievements, and compare high scores, similar to Xbox Live. The popularity of social games is apparent judging by the success of some of Facebook’s games: Farmville, Mafia Wars, and Restaurant City.

[stats via comScore]

While CTIA Wireless showcases the world’s latest mobile concepts and developments, this year there was a definite Android spotlight at the show. Some attendees even suggested calling the event “CTIAndroid.” However, there still isn’t a clear mobile OS leader in the industry. In terms of market share, iPhones stayed at 25% this month while Android increased by 5% – from 3.8% to 9%. Blackberry RIM still holds the most at 42%. We’d like to hear which mobile OS you think will dominate the market. Cast your vote below.

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[stats via comScore]

This morning we were hit with a 4.4 magnitude earthquake in LA that woke and unsettled many, including myself. Instantly using the iPhone for earthquake news, I first checked the LA Times app, then the New York Times one. No reports yet. I then thought of checking the Facebook app, anxious to hear any news, which instantly showed a stream of updates from friends about the earthquake.

We’ve all been reading about the competition between Facebook and Google Buzz, Facebook and Twitter – the list goes on. However, we haven’t given much thought to Facebook vs. news sources such as the NYT or the LA Times.

Obviously Facebook and news sources fulfill different information-giving roles, however, as digital is progressively becoming a large part of our personal lives, it seems that news apps could integrate a social news function to receive news updates from our friends as well. And vice versa, Facebook could serve the latest breaking news.

The LA Phil’s Bravo Gustavo iPhone app that we designed and developed continues to get featured–most recently in TIME Magazine and Forbes.com.

Having seen numerous references of Gustavo Dudamel as the “Dude” I knew it was a just a matter of time once our iPhone app launched that someone would reference the app as “iDude”. But it’s always nice to see some mentions and good reviews–Gizmodo, Yahoo! Games, LA Times, The Guardian, Creativity, Boing Boing, and the iDude-referencing blog ArtsJournal all featured the app in the first couple of days after launch.

Bravo Gustavo app has also been chosen as an iTunes Store Staff Favorites.