Nintendo: no games coming to iOS, and more news for January 30th

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has confirmed during a strategy briefing that, despite recent rumors, the struggling company has no plans to bring any of its games to iOS or other smartphone platforms. The news will come as a disappointment to fans of Nintendo's properties and also investors who have been weary of Nintendo's decreasing profits and brand perception in the eyes of modern gamers.

Rumors of Nintendo making its games available on iOS surfaced last week, but Iwata has made clear those rumors were wrong. However, Nintendo does have plans to bring service apps to iOS, which will offer users a bridge between smartphones and Nintendo's hardware. Such service apps could include apps that allow you to track your scores, see what your friends are playing and deliver news about the company.

Many analysts and industry professionals feel Nintendo needs to bring its games to iOS or risk losing out on a generation of gamers who are increasingly using their smartphones as their main gaming system of choice.

In other news:

• Apple is aggressively pushing to take its sapphire plant in Arizona live next month. The news comes from documents from the US Department of Commerce that were leaked to 9to5Mac. The letter says the sapphire components to be made there are "a critical new sub-component of Apple Products."

• Twitter has updated its iOS app to version 6.1 with the ability to reply to a tweet with a photo via a new gallery icon button, improvements to photo cropping and rotation and the ability to pull to refresh to see recommendations for new content on Twitter. Twitter for iOS is a free download.

• Overlooked by most in Apple's financial call the other day was the fact the company almost doubled its acquisition spending last quarter to a whopping $525 million. The acquisitions included PrimeSense, Topsy Labs, search engine Cue and Broadmap, a software mapping company.