Apple ignited the mobile software market and now others want to emulate its success, writes David Flynn.

There's no doubt the iPhone changed the way mobile phones are designed, sold and used. Yet Apple's stylish and seductively easy-to-use smartphone was the launch pad for something even more revolutionary: an online software store with programs to unleash the full potential of the modern mobile phone, making it a pocket computer.

Unlike the programs sold for desktops and laptops, these mobile phone applications or apps are small, fast, low-cost (if not free) and usually designed for a single task. And there are thousands: games, guides to restaurants and cafes, apps for travel and banking, news and weather, sports, hobbies and business tools.

There is, as the advertisements say, an app for just about everything and they're all on the App Store Apple's one-stop shop for browsing and downloading software for the iPhone.

Although almost none of the programs are written by Apple, the company provided the App Store as a kind of software supermarket in which an astounding number of the programs are free and most of those offered for sale cost less than $US5 ($6.20). The average price is $US2.65 and Apple takes a 30 per cent cut on all software sold through the store.

Apps can be downloaded directly over the high-speed 3G mobile network or using Apple's iTunes software on a Windows or Mac computer, with the programs transferred to the iPhone the next time the phone is connected to that computer. By making it easy to find, download and buy programs for your mobile phone, the App Store ignited the mobile software market.

There are now more than 65,000 programs listed on the App Store and, in its first year, users of the iPhone (and the iPod Touch, which can run the same apps) downloaded a staggering 1.5 billion programs.

And in the same way that the iPhone has prompted other manufacturers to release touchscreen phones with elegant and finger-friendly interfaces, the major players in the mobile phone market are also seeking to emulate the barnstorming success of the App Store as a way to serve up mobile software.

Potentially, the biggest competition to the iPhone's App Store will come from Nokia, which dominates the world's mobile phone market with a share of 38.6 per cent more than double that of its nearest rival, Samsung (16.2 per cent). By way of comparison, Apple holds a 1.1 per cent share of the mobile market.

Nokia also leads in the more specialised smartphone segment with 41.2 per cent, ahead of the iconic BlackBerry (20 per cent) and Apple (10.8 per cent). Nokia's Ovi Store, which launched last month at store.ovi.com, leverages mobile technology such as GPS receivers and trends in social networking to make the app store even more practical.

"This is not just a place to find applications," says the executive vice-president of services and software for Nokia, Niklas Savander.

"It's a smart store. It suggests things you might like and adds social location dynamics to show you relevant applications. It shows you what your friends have bought. And it changes the inventory based on where you are." In addition to software, podcasts and video will be offered.

The GPS receiver built into an increasing number of high-end mobile phones will showcase applications based on your location. Step off a plane at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris and Ovi will suggest a set of recommended apps such as currency converters, maps, "Instant French" language lessons plus city guides to the Paris metro, restaurants and bars. Nokia's travel content includes guides and video podcasts from Lonely Planet.