Well, it finally happened. If you've upgraded to the latest version of iTunes, aka 7.7, you can check out the mythical iPhone App Store, and although you can't buy anything yet, you'll at least be able to choose the apps you'll be spending your precious denaros on. *Update: ok, now you can start spending cash, if you're so inclined.
As Steve Jobs promised earlier today, there are about 500 applications to choose from at this moment.
The categories for the apps are Business, Education, Entertainment, Finance, Games, Health & Fitness, Lifestyle, Music, Navigation, News, Photography, Productivity, Reference, Social Networking, Sports, Travel, Utilities, and Weather.
At first glance, I'm seeing a lot of games, plus some familiar names, like Twitterific, AIM client, Facebook, MySpace Mobile, Pownce, and Typepad. Most of the applications fall into the 0.99-9.99 dollar category, but some, like PhotoDial, cost as high as 14.99 dollars. The most expensive application I've found so far is LionClock Lite, a time tracker that costs a whopping 29.99 dollars. Well, strike that: Netter's Anatomy Flash Cards and Netter's Neuroscience Flash Cards - those cool medical apps that were shown when iPhone 3G was unveiled - are 39.99 each. Ouch. Simple applications such as Light, as well as many utilities, are free.
One disappointing category is definitely Navigation, which only contains 11 applications, one of which is Flashlight. Sure, it does help you see where you're going, but I wouldn't exactly call it navigation. I sure hope for more applications that will take advantage of iPhone's shiny new GPS in the (near) future.
The best populated category, by far, is Entertainment, a good portion of which are simple ebooks. There's also a lot of utilities, but not many fall into the must-have category.
All in all, the app store is populated well, but there's nothing groundbreaking here; after a couple of days the ratings on the apps will make more sense, so it'll be easier to choose the really good applications. And, of course, hopefully the developers will swarm to create new stuff so we'll have a much wider choice soon.
Several more screenshots await after the jump.
