It looks like we may soon need an iPhone application that keeps track of all the new iPhone applications.
If a report by the global technology research firm IDC is on track, the amount of compact software for Apple handsets is growing at an astonishing rate of 900 percent, with 300,000 expected to be available by the end of next year, or triple the current inventory, fueling the platform’s skyrocketing success.
Overall, mobile access to the Internet is soaring too, with one billion devices expected to be online by the end of next year, the report said.
“Mobile devices will . . . exert a powerful transformational force on the [IT] industry as they increasingly compete with PCs as the primary client platform for developers and users alike,” IDC declared.
The firm’s analysts see that wave boosted by the growth of smartphones and the arrival of the long-delayed Apple iPad tablet, a project that reportedly has been scrapped several times by CEO Steve Jobs because he didn’t like the functionality of the early prototypes.
The report anticipates that the tablet will be less like a computer and more like an overgrown iPod touch that would compete with the Kindle reader, videophones and portable online game platforms.
“This prediction is a no-brainer,” said IDC. “There’s enormous appeal in sizing up the iPhone/Touch for a variety of applications and activities that people already use those devices for but would jump at the chance to have a larger screen — watching videos/movies, reading books/magazines/newspapers.”
IDC also predicts that Microsoft will have a similar device around the same time. In September, the blog Gizmodo displayed leaked pictures of a device, named Courier, that featured a book-like design with two hinged seven-inch multitouch screens.
While trailing the iPhone, applications for Google’s Android operating system are expected to reach between…