More than 2000 applications are available already for the iPhone. My own favorite ones right now are:

• Salesforce Mobile, in case you use salesforce.com as a CRM tool, access is available with the iPhone now too
• Swissquote, leading Swiss online broker
• Currency, showing you the latest exchange rates
• 20min, nice online version of the popular free Swiss newspaper
• NetNewsWire, RSS reader providing me with the latest online news
• Bloomberg, news headlines and a quick overview of the world stock markets
• NYTimes, New York Times news, business articles and latest photos
• PangeaVR, great tool to see 360 degree panoramas, amazing what’s technically possible already
• GottaGo, front end for all public transportation in Switzerland, great tool
• iOlympics, latest news, events, schedules, sports and country specific news
• ZIP codes, let’s you find zip codes or towns and provides quick access to maps
• Labyrinth LE, my kids liked it!
• DizzyBeeFree, dito
• Shazam and midomi, in case I hear a song on the radio that I like and want to buy, I can identify it now within a few seconds…

Tomorrow the iPhone 3G will be launched but the real big news is the Apple AppStore that already contains 500 applications. Steve Jobs says it will be a new mobile platform and Microsoft, Nokia, Google and many others are for sure now getting even more nervous about what is happening in this market.

Comments from the US media: WSJ, NYT

Apple is trying to excite the mobile developer community and seems to be on an excellent track. According to Apple they don’t want to make much money with mobile software (70% goes to the developers) but sell more iPhones. Also a $100 million venture fund for iPhone application development startups was launched by Kleiner Perkins Caufield one of the leading venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. Two more are underway, it is said.