In an update to his LinkedIn profile, Microsoft Marketing Manager for Xbox UK, Robin Burrowes, let the world know that he’s been hired by Apple to push iPhone and iPad gaming even further.

Burrowes tenure at Microsoft saw him work on Xbox for roughly seven years, where he was most recently responsible for all product, business and marketing management of Xbox LIVE in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. For Apple, he’s the latest in a series of high-profile British gaming recruits, following the hire of Nintendo’s public relation’s chief Robert Saunders last year, as well as Nick Grange — who also at one point ran public relations for Xbox, as well as for gaming heavyweights Activision and Electronics Arts.

Microsoft came out of nowhere with the Xbox to take a significant share of the console gaming market, especially when it comes to hardcore gamers and multiplayer gaming with services like Xbox Live. Apple has seen enormous success in the mobile gaming sector after creating the App Store for iOS 2 and the iPhone 3G in 2008. Now they, along with Google’s Android platform, have overtaken the likes of Sony and Nintendo when it comes to U.S. portable game software by revenue.

With Apple’s last count of 550,000 apps in the App Store, and around 20% of those being games, it’s not hard to see why Apple considers it important enough to hire a key gaming manager like Burrowes.

iPhones and iPads are increasingly this generations’ portable gaming platforms of choice.

Source: Robin Burrowes via 148apps.biz via AppleInsider

According to Game Developers Research, their new study shows the iPhone platform is more popular with game developers than either the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP. Electronista sums up:

Demand for the iPhone has surged to where about 19 percent of all game developers are writing for the iPhone and iPod touch. The figure is more than twice as high as for the DS and PSP and results in three quarters of all mobile game developers writing for Apple’s handhelds.

While no reasons were cited for the level of developer interest in the iPhone and iPod touch, they figure the high visibility of the Apple brand combined with robust developer tools and centralized App Store model makes for a compelling package. 75 million devices on the market probably doesn’t hurt either…

Good news for iPhone, iPod touch, and eventually iPad gamers — with developers come great games.

Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata loves his MacBook and his iPhone, and firmly believes Nintendo and Apple aren’t competitors (they appeal to different customers), and any talk of it makes him uncomfortable.

Yet Apple is most assuredly aiming at gaming (even if John Carmack thinks it’s between clenched teeth), especially with the funner iPod touch ever, and its game-heavy marketing.

With Nintendo profits down 52% for the first half of the year, and Apple selling record numbers of iPhones and reporting 100,000 apps and 2,000,000,000 downloads (with games weighed heavily among them).

Even with a dedicated gaming device like the DS (and perhaps a new platform on the way next year?), and a high-profile set of first-party properties like Mario, Metroid, Zelda, Pokémon, etc. those are tough numbers to look at. And Nintendo isn’t kidding themselves about that:

“If we can’t make clear why customers pay a lot of money to play games on Nintendo hardware and Nintendo software and differentiate ourselves from games on the mobile phone or iPhone, then our future is dark.”

Still, there are no plans for a WiiPhone (no matter how cool that might sound to us!), though an Amazon Kindle-like model, where the end-user doesn’t see any of the cell network bills, does appeal to Iwata.

Likewise, we can’t hold our breath for even older 1st party GameBoy titles to show up on the iPhone either. At least not anytime soon.

[Wall Street Journal -- thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

When Steve Jobs uttered the statement that “Now you can make a pretty good argument that the [iPod Touch/iPhone] is the best portable device for playing games on”, did you nod your head in unison? I have my money on you saying no—the iPhone is a great device, to be sure, but a gaming device? Leave that to Nintendo you probably thought.

Why? Because the Nintendo DS has sold close to 80 million units since its inception. The numbers speak for themselves, the Nintendo DS is the king of portable gaming. So what would it take for the iPhone to knock the DS off of its throne? Well, that’s what we are here to tell you.

Read on to see how the iPhone can take on the Nintendo DS!

Taking a quick look at the Nintendo DS we can definitely see that Apple has a lot to learn before even coming remotely close to matching the success of the DS. The DS has great games, a sleek, colorful design, and a fun factor that is unmatched in portable gaming. Nintendo as a company bleeds games, it is their sole priority—to compete with such dedication Apple needs to befriend those whose talents better suit the field.

But looking at it spec-by-spec, it is clear the the iPhone/iPod Touch is fully capable of challenging the DS for portable gaming supremacy, the processor is superior, the screen is bigger, and multi-touch simply runs circles around the stylus+touchscreen of the DS.

Nintendo DS

Processor: two ARM CPUs (67MHz and 33MHz)

Screen: two 256×192 pixel screens

iPhone

Processor: ARM CPU @ 620MHz

Screen: 480×320 pixels

Plus the added benefit of not having to carry a cell phone AND a gaming device is understated, I cannot tell you how many times I’ve fired up an iPhone game to kill dead time—I don’t readily carry my DS as much as my iPhone.

The biggest concern for iPhone gaming is attracting developers to develop standout games for the iPhone and more importantly, exclusives. The DS has an advantage because the company who makes the system (Nintendo) is the company who makes its best games (Nintendo). This is why it’ll take time to develop the iPhone as a viable gaming platform—developers need to become familiar with the format and develop games that can take advantage of all the iPhone’s features. But guess what? It’s already happening. Super Monkey Ball and Spore Origins is already here, Need for Speed is coming, and who knows what else is next. Multi-touch, the accelerometer, and flexibility is all specs that the DS can’t match.

Games CAN sell on the iPhone because of the wondrous App Store that leaves the developers with no advertising nor packaging costs. If a solid game hits the $9.99 price point, gamers will flock. Add to the fact that the iPhone is always-connected to the internet (DS accepts only WEP encrypted WI-Fi) and has a 8GB/16GB hard drive, the iPhone is the most superior system to develop games on—its more powerful than any gaming device with the most unique control system yet maintains a convenience factor that cannot be duplicated.

We at TiPb agree that gaming on the iPhone is still a work in progress—there are few games that adequately replace the portable gaming device feel and there are still traditionalists who prefer physical buttons over multi-touch. Yeah, the iPhone is heads and shoulders above “cell phone games” but to compete with the DS, Apple desperately needs to accommodate for more “game-like features” such as: better save modes, deeper immersion in video games, and maybe even external, physical buttons.

When all that happens, look out. The DS is a limited system that can only play games. The iPhone? Well, we at TiPb think that the iPhone is the perfect platform for gaming. What do you guys think?

We’ve covered gaming here a few times already. Now Roughly Drafted Magazine’s Daniel Eran Dilger chimes in with another of his highly detailed (and highly partisan) articles, this one looking at Apple’s iPhone and how it compares to, and seems poised to disrupt, the established portable gaming platforms:

The most obvious competition the iPhone faces is the leading Nintendo DS and the distant runner up, Sony’s PlayStation Portable. Incidentally, both gaming units appeared on the market in late 2004; the iPhone benefits from being nearly three years younger, and therefore based on considerably more modern technology. However, gaming isn’t an easy market to break into.

Dilger covers whether or not a convergence device like the iPhone can even compete against dedicated gaming handhelds. He runs down the current console market and Apple’s thus far discreet approach to gaming on iPods.

From unit pricing to hardware specs, Dilger makes his case that while the iPhone is expensive, its also a generation ahead in terms of performance, and despite the price, offers features above and beyond gaming.

Potential smart phone rivals, including Micrsoft’s XNA and Nokia’s N-Gage 2.0 are also discussed.

What’s Dilger’s conclusion?

As Apple migrates its 150 million iPod installed base toward the iPod Touch and iPhone, the company will pair a large user base with enthusiastic development efforts. Users will get the gaming environment as a free addition to the phone, media player, and web browser they purchased. Conversely, that also means that lesser phones with plodding web browser capabilities and simplistic media playback–as well as dedicated games consoles that really only play games–will have a hard time competing against the new platform. That should make for an interesting 2008.

Personally, I’ve considered a PSP in the past but could never justify the (then very high) cost for something I wouldn’t use all that often. But I have my phone with me all the time, and if I could get games as innovative as the DS (or Wii!) and as high quality as the PSP on my iPhone, it would be a no brainer. And maybe Apple’s counting on that as a way to “trojan horse” its way into gaming.

On a very deep level, using the accelerometer to fly an X-Wing into the Death Star is something I think the iPhone was forged to do. (You listening, Lucas?)