While the iPhone is an awesome device especially compared to most of the competition the thing that really makes it powerful is overwhelming selection of applications available for it.  When people go to a store to purchase a new phone rarely are they thinking about the selection of applications the phone has.  Usually they are concerned with how the phone looks and it’s overall coolness factor, but now thanks to the iPhone that has changed.

Apple has not only succeeded in getting developers to create applications for the iPhone but have beaten Microsoft’s volume of applications available in only a few short years.  Microsoft’s mobile OS has now been out for almost 9 years and Global Intelligence estimates that there are around 20,000 applications available for it.  Up until this month this dwarfed that of applications available for any other mobile device but Apple has now exceeded 25,000 applications.

For any competitor to succeed in the mobile phone market against Apple they will need to compete against not only the iPhone but against the applications for it.

Check It Out> Ars Technica