Apple's new App Store turned on its virtual lights Thursday, featuring third-party applications for the iPhone and the iPod. The store is intended to support developers who are creating applications for the iPhone. The store is also reportedly helping developers get their products into final shape.

Prices End in 99 Cents

Developers can reportedly select any price they want for their products, as long as it ends in 99 cents -- $1.99, $49.99, and so on. Developers can also offer their products for free. To track sales, developers will be able to use Connect, just as bands and artists do. Payment will be made by when the amount reaches $250 or more.

Already, the store has hundreds of apps, a number of which are free. The free ones include AOL's AIM instant-messaging client, Mobile, , an iPhone version of , and Apple's Remote for controlling iTunes remotely.

Other applications include a updater, which allows you to see changes in your MySpace friends' activities or to post photos from the iPhone directly to the social-networking site. Pandora has an app that allows the creation of customized Internet radio stations.

has an auction app that allows users to browse auction photos and place bids from the iPhone, using its multitouch capabilities. The Super Monkey Ball game enables a player to roll and tilt the action with the iPhone's built-in accelerometer, and Loopt lets you find where your friends are on a map, using location feeds.

According to USA Today, the store's offerings number more than 500. The paper quotes Apple CEO Steve Jobs as saying that with those many products, the store's launch "is the biggest launch of my career."

Some observers have noted that the proliferation of third-party apps, together with a centralized channel for sales and distribution, could strengthen the iPhone and iPod's position as not only a media player or media phone, but also as a versatile, all-around mobile computing device.

'Outside the Firewall'

The applications will only run if the user has iPhone 2.0 software installed, currently only available to those who buy the new iPhone 3G -- which goes on sale Friday in the U.S. and elsewhere. Pre-2.0 users can still buy the software, however, and then run it when they get 2.0.

Jeffrey Hammond, an analyst with industry research firm Forrester, noted that a lot of the applications offered through the App Store are "outside the firewall," meaning they're primarily social or entertainment offerings and not designed for "inside the firewall" businesses.

Now that the iPhone 3G can be integrated into some enterprise e-mail systems, the device is getting a somewhat warmer reception among IT departments. But, Hammond noted, there probably won't be a robust selection of business apps in the App Store until the iPhone becomes more accepted by enterprises.