Minority Report: iPhone App Store takes my breath away

So far ahead and only in third gear

Apple's App Store has plenty of competitors - but it's looking harder and harder for any of them to catch up with the leader, says Seb Janacek.

Apple this week announced that users had downloaded more than 1.5 billion applications from its App Store in the 12 months since its launch. According to Apple, the App Store has more than 65,000 applications.

The company also claimed its growth is fuelled by the 100,000-strong developer community which creates the apps. This latter statistic is probably the one it's most delighted with.

Since the launch of the iPhone in 2007, dozens of competing manufacturers have rushed to market with their own touchscreen smartphones.

Since the launch of Apple's App Store last year, there has been a similar rush to provide mobile application marketplaces. Google, Microsoft, Nokia, Palm and RIM have all announced they are following the lead of the Cupertino fireball.

In 2008 silicon.com editor Steve Ranger explained why we publish so many articles about the iPhone. He wrote that the device was a game changer, despite the relatively low number of handsets sold at the time.

One year and several million handset sales later, Apple still doesn't have the biggest market share but it continues to set the agenda for the whole mobile industry. And while the rest are all playing catch-up, Apple is a couple of years ahead, which is where it always wanted to be.

I've written before that very soon, smartphones will no longer be called smartphones, just phones. Apple has been busy reinventing the future for both the handset and the software ecosystem and the market that surrounds it.

The iPhone's looks haven't changed much since its 2007 launch. It's the software that allows it to evolve - and with 100,000 developers churning out applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch, there's plenty to choose from.

The most recent company to announce it is launching its own mobile app store is US mobile giant Verizon. The carrier this week revealed that all Verizon-sold phones will only have access to the company's own app store by default. It will hold an event at the end of this month to court developers to the platform. Despite its dominant position in the carrier market, you'd have to say the smart money is against it.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a press release this week: "The App Store is like nothing the industry has ever seen before in both scale and quality," adding "it is going to be very hard for others to catch up".

For once you have to believe the hyperbole. The company has always been a trailblazer for computers and operating systems and later for MP3 players. Despite those successes, the iPhone is moving much faster and given the limitations Apple has set itself with a single operator per territory, if it opens the model up it could be out of sight before long.

The App Store is accelerating away from its competitors and it's still only in third gear. It takes my breath away.