App Store to Launch Tomorrow With 500 iPhone/iPod Touch Applications

Cupertino (CA) - Apple today said that its App Store will go live tomorrow morning with more than 500 native iPhone applications. About one quarter will be available for free. Analysts believe that the App Store and iPhone SDK could become bigger than the iTunes and the iPhone itself, positioning iPhone as a relevant mobile platform.

When the iPhone 3G goes on sale tomorrow, App Store will go online with more than 500 native applications for the iPhone/iPod touch, Apple confirmed today. The portfolio will include action games, medical applications, productivity tools for the enterprise, as well as general applications covering business, news, sports, health, reference and travel.

Among companies delivering applications on launch day are The Associated Press, whose application enables the delivery and reading of local news, eBay with a free application to track bids and enable shopping, Facebook with an application that discovers friends nearby and sends pictures taken with the iPhone camera directly to user’s Facebook account. There is also a MySpace Mobile application that provides access to all MySpace features on the iPhone and a Travelocity software that can find the hotel nearest to the user’s location and check the status of a flight.

Mobile games are expected to generate the most interest due to iPhone’s processing and graphics capabilities paired with trhe device’s accelerometer. Among the games being offered is Super Monkey Ball that features touch and tilt controls and 3D graphics. The game will sell for $9.99.

The App Store as killer application

The App Store is generally believed to become one of the killer iPhone features. It enables users to browse, preview, download and purchase free or paid Apple-approved third-party applications directly on the iPhone or iPod touch and use them immediately. The use user interface resembles the look of the Wi-Fi iTunes Store application. Users can browse applications by categories, read the description and view screenshots. The App Store will also take care of automatically delivering available updates to the installed applications.

Applications that are up to 10 MB in size can be downloaded over the cellular network or Wi-Fi, while those that weigh more than 10 MB can be downloaded only via Wi-Fi connectivity. All applications on the App Store will also be available through iTunes. Developers are free to set the price for their applications, but Apple will keep 30% of the revenue. Users will be charged for purchases to their iTunes user account.

The App Store and other new features of the iPhone 3G require the iPhone 2.0 software update and iTunes 7.7. Both pieces of software will be made available as free updates tomorrow. The iPhone 2.0 software update will ship by default on iPhone 3G and will appear in iTunes as a free update for existing iPhone users tomorrow. iPod touch users will be have to pay $9.99 for the system update.