Apple's iPhone App Store Is Live with Ad-Supported Free Apps

The Apple iPhone AppStore has officially launched, containing nearly 500 applications. As expected, nearly 25% of these applications are free of charge for the end user, and 90% of the commercial apps are priced at $10 or less. Steve Jobs made the announcement to USA Today, adding that this is 'the biggest launch of [his] career.'

A company called Medialets, which just launched June 1st, has also announced that it has created a way for companies to offer free ad-supported applications in the Apple iPhone App Store. By including a small bit of code, the application will show rotating ads, and will report metrics to Medialets.

The revenue from these ad-supported applications is shared exclusively between Medialets and the developer, with none of it going to Apple. According to Medialets' CEO, who worked with Steve Jobs at NeXT, this is not going to cause a problem with Apple.