Defying some expectations that Apple today would introduce the iPhone 5—an entirely new model supporting 4G—the company instead rolled out the iPhone 4S, an incremental update of the existing iPhone 4. This confirms the HIS outlook issued in July that the new iPhone introduced by Apple in 2011 likely would not include the next-generation 4G technology known as Long Term Evolution (LTE). IHS continues to expect that Apple will introduce an LTE-capable iPhone 5 when an affordable chipset solution allowing a thinner form factor is available. The iPhone 5 most likely will arrive in late 2012, or in mid-2013.

With Apple debuting its new iPhone 4S to the world on October 4 at a press conference, IHS iSuppli offered key facts on the much-anticipated portable device. Video games have been a key part of Apple’s success in both the mobile and tablet categories thus far. And new gaming features will be showcased on stage during the press conference.

Social games company RockYou enlisted market research firm Interpret to conduct a Social Gamer Thought Leadership study to explore who’s playing games in the booming marketplace that Facebook has created. Key findings provide valuable insights for advertisers and marketers, game developers, and industry thought leaders looking to understand the rapidly-evolving social game space. The study explores attitudes, behaviors, motivations, psychographics, and purchase intent among the current US social gaming population. It also categorizes social gamers—based on their gaming behaviors and attitudes—into four consumer segments. The results both confirm existing assumptions and provide unexpected, surprising information about players.

David Maisel, the new head of Rovio’s North American operations, will be the opening keynote speaker at the second annual 3D Gaming Summit: 3D Gaming and Beyond on Thursday, September 22, 2011 at the Hollywood & Highland Center, Hollywood, CA. Maisel, who is heading up Angry Birds migration to Hollywood film and television, will speak at 10:30 a.m., Thursday, September 22nd.

Browser-based video game publisher continues its rapid expansion. The game maker has taken over the entire production team of Hamburg-based development studio 49Games. More than 40 full-time employees will now become part of Bigpoint’s international team and will be developing online games instead of console titles. The current projects under development in 49Games will be completed by the production team. Aside from the production team, all rights to their multiplatform technology, assets, licenses etc. remain the property of 49Games GmbH.

Driven by booming sales of low-end models, shipments of smartphone will rise to account for more than half of the worldwide cellphone market in 2015, according to a new IHS iSuppli Mobile Handset Market Tracker report. Global smartphone unit shipments will soar to 1.03 billion units in 2015, more than double the 478 million in 2011.

Cologne -- Gamescom keeps getting bigger. Over 275,000 people from around the world trekked to the small German city of Cologne to check out the latest video games up close and personal. Attendance for this year’s Gamescom 2011, which ran August 17-21, was up 21,000 from last year’s convention. There was also a larger media presence, including from the U.S., as more game publishers debuted new titles at the show than ever before.