LAS VEGAS — Ata Ghofrani cut down on smoking and finally quit during the holidays. The only glitch was a New Year’s Eve party, which triggered a “huge spike” in his otherwise fairly smooth reduction schedule.

Ghofrani used his own invention — Quitbit, the world’s first “smart” lighter — to monitor his smoking and set a daily “budget” of cancer sticks that decreased every day.

“The key for me was to know how many cigarettes I budgeted to smoke a day and how many I had left,” he wrote in a blog post detailing his progress.

The Quitbit uses the same psychology as fitness trackers. If you can monitor it, you can manage it.

A new smartphone service launched today by the British Heart Foundation uses augmented reality to transform a packet of cigarettes into luxury items in an effort to help you quit smoking.

Using the Blippar app for Android and iOS, the service encourages you to “swap fags for swag” (“fag” is a British term for cigarette) by virtually transforming your cigarettes into other items you could afford if you didn’t spend your cash on smokes.

Did you promise yourself that 2011 would be the year that you would quit smoking? Are you having trouble sticking to your new year’s resolution? Well maybe there’s an iOS app that will make it a little easier for you. Here’s our list of the best iOS apps that may help you succeed in your quest to quit this year.

The apps we’ve selected will help you find the motivation you need to stamp out those nicotine cravings. Quickly calculate how much money you spend on cigarettes each week and see how much you could save as a non-smoker; create personalized plans that are tailored to help you quit in a way that suits you; and even estimate how much of your life you might be saving by saying no to cigarettes. If that’s not enough motivation, we don’t know what is!

Check them out after the break and get help to kick the habit in 2011.