Triumph of the Apple entrepreneurs

Apple's App Store, for its iPhone and iPod Touch, is a simple idea - small bits of software you can download to your phone to add a game or some other application to it.

Yet in just 16 months it has become a massive cultural and financial phenomenon. At any dinner party in the capital there's a good chance someone will whip out their iPhone and show off their latest bit of software.

Meanwhile, in bedrooms across London developers are toiling away on their own software in the hope it could one day made them rich and allow them to give up their jobs.

The figures are phenomenal: more than 100,000 applications are now available, covering everything from the latest must-have game to satnav software.

More than two billion apps, which range in price from free to more than £600, have been downloaded to the 50 million iPhones and iPod Touches that can run them.

Even Apple admits it has been taken aback by the runaway success.

"The App Store changed everything," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president for iPod and iPhone product marketing.

Soft-spoken and with a penchant for floral shirts, Joswiak is genuinely enthusiastic about the software, and says he's filled his own phone with apps.

He is the man behind the App Store and responsible for the massive marketing machine that has created a vast TV and print advertising campaign.

Joswiak, based in Apple's Cupertino headquarters, granted the Standard a rare interview at the firm's Regent Street store, where he showed off some of the latest applications, including multiplayer games allowing players to compete online or, in the case of a new Harry Potter game, by standing in front of each other and waving their phone about like a lunatic.

"The App Store has just continued to go beyond anyone's expectations. We now have more than 100,000 applications for sale in just 16 months. Nobody could have ever imagined it being so successful."

One of the most important aspects of the store is that it allows smaller developers to easily make their creations available.

"The App Store really levels the playing field for the small guys, who just couldn't write for other games systems because it is so expensive," said Joswiak.

London in particular has become a hub for iPhone development, and hundreds of part time programmers are dotted across the capital.

When developers write software, they agree to give Apple 30 per cent of the revenue but this still leaves enough profit to replace a salary, and there is even talk of app millionaires being created, although both Apple and the developers are cagey on the exact numbers.

Iain Thain runs the London iPhone Developers Group, which has more than 350 members, and meets every month.

"I think London is unique is having this social community of developers," he said. "We started off with an online group a few months ago and we are now up to 350 members.

"We have about 45 applications developed by members currently available to buy. Other members see that and realise that if they come up with a good application they could make a living from it."