Apple launches iTunes App Store

Apple released iTunes 7.7 earlier today and just after we wrote a piece explaining that, no, it doesn't include the iTunes applications store, Apple goes ahead and launches the iTunes application store!

The application store lists 546 applications at the moment, including games, ebooks and a mix of utilities (including both mobile Facebook, MySpace and Twitter apps). There's also a free eBook reader called eReader, courtesy of FictionWise. There are 137 free applications at the time of writing, but prices range up £17.99. Some apps are rather ambitiously priced too, particularly when you consider that they can be downloaded for free on a jailbroken iPhone. 

Applications can be purchased and appear under an Applications entry in the iTunes library. The catch, of course, is that you can't do anything with them until the 2.0 firmware is released. The 2.0 firmware isn’t bundled with iTunes 7.7 this time round, but iPhone1,2_2.0_5A347_Restore.ipsw is now available for a sneaky download.

You can access the iTunes App Store directly with iTunes 7.7, or just click this link if you have iTunes 7.7 installed. 

[ iTunes 7.7]