Sure the new iPhone is cool, but those apps...

I haven't laid hands on the new Apple Inc. iPhone yet, and I don't much care. That's because I've already spent hours with Apple's most important innovation of the year, and it's not a piece of hardware.

It's an array of powerful, versatile software programs that run on old iPhones as well as new ones, which go on sale today. Most don't cost much and many are free. Hundreds of these applications, or "apps," became available yesterday through the App Store, part of Apple's iTunes Internet retail service.

Yes, the new iPhone is important enough. Its built-in global positioning system chip and faster cellular data networking are major improvements to an already brilliant design. Still, the new iPhone isn't a game-changer.

But iPhone 2.0 is. That's Apple's name for a software upgrade that finally lets outside companies write programs to run on the iPhone. When the phone was unveiled in June 2007, software developers worldwide were salivating over the chance to write innovative programs for it. But Apple didn't provide access to the iPhone's core operating system, freezing out third-party software development.

The policy also hampered the iPhone's ability to compete with rival smartphone technologies. Corporate and government users prefer Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry phones or devices running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Mobile software or Nokia Corp.'s Symbian software. Those systems encourage third-party developers to write compatible programs with innovative features.

Microsoft used the same policy with the desktop version of Windows. The result was a tidal wave of Windows-compatible programs that overwhelmed rivals like Apple's desktop computer, the Macintosh.

Apple has plainly learned the lesson. Last year, the company vowed it would eventually open up the iPhone. Earlier this year, it provided software developers with a tool kit for building iPhone programs.

Now comes the payoff, and it's a lavish one. Apple says independent developers have already created 500 apps for the iPhone.

The ones I've tried are generally splendid. While they often do things you could already do on any good smartphone, these apps perform with unmatched ease and elegance.

For sheer readability, the NYTimes iPhone app may be the best electronic newspaper yet. It's formatted to take full advantage of the iPhone's big, bright screen. Stories appear in sharp, easily readable type, and a series of icons at the bottom allow users to flick over to any part of the paper with no more than a touch or two. The New York Times Co. owns The New York Times and The Boston Globe.

As the baseball season gets interesting after the All-Star Game break, lots of iPhone users will gladly pay $4.99 for At Bat, an app created by Major League Baseball. Not only does it deliver game schedules and real-time score updates, it also offers video clips of game highlights, available just minutes after they happen. The clips look marvelous on the iPhone's screen.

The Pandora online music service lets users create custom streams of music from their favorite artists. I'm partial to 17th-century English composer Henry Purcell, and I can now listen to "The Fairie Queen" and other delights whenever I please, thanks to Pandora's free iPhone app. If you prefer Jay-Z, knock yourself out.

I'm not much good at Super Monkey Ball, a popular video game where you try to roll a ball around and through a series of obstacles. But you can try your luck with an iPhone version that takes advantage of the iPhone's accelerometer chip, which can tell when the phone is being tilted from side to side.

There's no button-pushing in this video game; instead, you tilt the iPhone as the onscreen ball responds to every move. Try that with a BlackBerry.

There are plenty more apps where these came from. More important, programmers are busy working on many more, for every purpose - from entertainment to hardcore business. At last, Apple's iPhone will be revealed as the potent little handheld computer it really is.

Researchers at Gartner Inc. say over a billion cellphones were sold worldwide last year, but only about 123 million were high-end smartphones. That's changing fast; by 2010, Gartner predicts annual smartphone sales of 1 billion.

And it's still anybody's game. While BlackBerry, Symbian, and Microsoft are well-established, Apple could grab a big slice of this surging market. All the company needs is an excellent phone and an ample supply of first-rate software. With the launch of the App Store, it now has both.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.