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I keep chipping away at my wife to let me get an iPhone for Christmas, and one of my selling points is the wealth of applications that are available for the device. “It will just make our lives better,” I tell her. As reported by Mac Rumors, the actual number of applications stands at 9,676 as of this writing, due to various things such as trademark infringement and discontinued apps (pulled and released). Games continue to dominate the App Store with 24% of all apps, followed by entertainment (11.6%) and utilities (10.9%). Games also seem to dominate the top 100 paid and top 100 free apps.

Now let’s look at this from an outside perspective. The iPhone makes and receives phone calls. That’s a no brainer. The iPhone 3G has a GPS receiver in it along with cell site locating abilities which allow you to do just about anything you want in relation to your location (it will even geotag your photos). You can send SMS messages. You can open attachments to e-mail and read them (the ability to retrieve Exchange e-mail is paramount for me as my job requires me to be connected 24/7). These are functions that most smart-phones have. There are some things it will not do that others do, however. It will not send a picture or video message; that needs to be done via e-mail. That is a little annoying. It will not allow you to tether the device to use it as a modem, although it is rumored to be added as an update sometime soon. These are just small things that I believe will be corrected at some point by Apple, but are detractors still.

Now then, let’s talk about what the device does do that other smart-phones do not. It is a gaming system. It is starting to become its own gaming eco-system, as a matter of fact. Spore and Super Monkey Ball are just a couple of examples of the high definition gaming of which it is capable. My kids would love it on long rides to the next town to go shopping.

10,000 applications. 10,000. Wow. Now, if I only see a need for 1% of those, I am still downloading 100 applications from the App Store. Anything from games to applications to do my finances, to applications that allow me to shake the phone to tell me where to eat. There is not a phone on the planet that will even come close to the App Store and the wide gamut of applications available for it.

Oh yeah, it is a widescreen iPod too.

10,000 apps! Time for a celebration, if you ask me. Happy holidays, everyone.

Via [MacRumors]