This just in, folks: iPhones are great for playing games.

Yes, you knew that and I knew that, but the news finally trickled down to The New York Times, proving once again that the obvious can be news only to newspapers on occasion.

And frankly, if Game Guy is clued in already, the term “obvious” must apply, since he’s not exactly the brightest pixel on the screen where gaming is concerned.

Of the 50,000 or so “apps” available for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch, games make up about 20 percent, according to analyst Mobclix and the Times, and half a billion of the downloads for both devices from the iTunes store are game-related.

As of Sunday afternoon though, all one had to do was check the iTunes home page in the space listing most popular iPhone downloads and find that nine of the top 10 apps were games. Some days, all 10 apps are games.

Makes sense, after all; the iPhone isn’t better than, say, a BlackBerry for making calls or for rapid texting. The touch screen also tends to be a little tricky for big-fingered typers. But Apple never intended to make just another mobile phone, just as it never intended to make just another music player when it developed the iPod. The iPhone was invented to capitalize on the growing market for mobile computing and casual gaming — otherwise known as games that are playable in just a few minutes.

In fact, Game Guy can’t remember the last time he used his iPhone for an actual phone call. The robust Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and e-mail apps mean he’s not using his laptop computer much, either.

Memo to newspapers: That might be a trend worth exploring.