Apple's newly opened AppStore brought a whole world of third party applications to iPhone and iPod Touch users. The newly created market has also attracted cheaters and line cutters. For example, ZDNET blogger Jason D. O'Grady remarked that some developers have used an age old trick to "cut the line" and be showed first on the alphabetical listings inside Apple's store.

To achieve their goal, some developers used blanks as the start characters of their application's name. This childish tactic is bound to backfire as the other software developers have already noticed the unscrupulous attempts to get in front of them.

The coolest and most popular applications so far seem to be things like the AOL Instant Messenger, Remote (an Apple-developed application which turns the iPhone/iPod Touch into a remote for an iTunes library), HyperOffice (which is actually a service) and, well, Bomberman Touch. There's also that Spore thing which is also cool, the Loopt application, the eBay application, and many more.

The analysts have already started to make some forecasts and they concluded that by the end of 2009 the AppStore will generate between $150 million and $230 million in revenues for Apple. Apparently, around a quarter of these are free, while most of the rest cost less than $10. About a third are games. The applications can only run on iPhones and iPod Touches updated to the latest firmware, 2.0, or on the iPhone 3G which includes the new firmware.

The 500+ software applications are really the reason why the iPhone could be the future of mobiles. However, one should remember that there are nearly 20,000 applications for the Windows Mobile platform, meaning iPhone developers have a long way to go, at least in terms of numbers. However, companies like Facebook, Bloomberg, AOL, eBay or Sega have already lined up to the AppStore.

Practically, every developer can submit their applications to the AppStore. If it gets accepted, Apple would retain 30 percent of all sales revenues. Users can download free applications at no charge to either the user or developer, or purchase priced applications with just one click. Third party iPhone and iPod touch applications must be approved by Apple and will be available exclusively through the App Store.

Already EA presented a version of Spore, the upcoming game from Will Wright, the mastermind behind games like The Sims and SimCity. SEGA released a version of Super Monkey Ball, a game that first appeared on Nintendo's GameCube console. It is quite possible that Apple's gadget will soon be a major mobile gaming platform.