iPhone App Store

It matters not how good your computer hardware is; without software to run on it you have no product. A moderately good computer can be raised to greatness by desirable software; Sinclair's Spectrum and IBM's original PC being just two examples (although "Horace Goes Skiing" was arguably less Earth-shattering than VisiCalc).

The same has not always been true of mobile phones, where the killer app (the "telephone call") has always been present as part of the operating system; it is only with the latest generation of smart phones that 3rd-party software has a chance to influence hardware sales. The phone that has created the demand (or brought it to the mainstream) for 3rd-party software is the iPhone, for which software is obtained via Apple's proprietary, and highly regulated, App Store.

This is not a review of the iPhone - there are plenty of those around already and it is too big and too complex a product for a part-time reviewer to cover in any depth. Oh, ok, if you really want them, here are my comments on the iPhone:

• For: spectacular internet device (Safari, the browser, is great), excellent user interface, stylish hardware, Visual Voicemail, ease-of-use, great display,
• Against: poor-ish battery life (although version 2.1 software is a great improvement), so-so camera,
• Verdict: superb in many respects (I love mine, and will not be replacing it anytime soon), but not quite suitable for heavy business use (if you make lots of calls then the battery life is just not good enough).

But what about the App Store? Accessed via iTunes, the App Store sells only those applications approved by Apple (around 4,000 at time of writing), which ensures that applications install and run without damaging the phone or stealing data (of course it also allows Apple to prevent competitive applications from entering the market, but that’s another story). Prices in the UK start at Free, with many apps costing no more than £0.59.

Purchasing apps directly through the iPhone UI is easy and quick – they download wirelessly, install automatically and are copied to your computer when you next sync. Payment is made via your iTunes account, receipts are emailed. Simple. Purchasing via iTunes is pretty much the same procedure and no more difficult.

In fact, there is only one real criticism of the App Store. The display of the applications within iTunes is dreadful, and the search and sort options don’t really help. iTunes offers no details beyond name, icon and category so if you need to know what the app actually does you have to click-through to the detailed page, which is a pain. On the plus side, you get user reviews, star ratings, screenshots and detailed comments from the developers, plus near-instant delivery.

On the whole, the App Store works well and is a positive point in the iPhone’s impressive feature list. It will be interesting to see how Google’s laissez-faire approach to software supply compares when the first Android phone launches later this year.