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1. App Store

1. App Store

Apple
Free
http://www.apple.com/iphone/appstore/

When Apple (AAPL) unveiled its game-changing iPhone last year, the product was only partially complete. Sure, the music-playing phone could do most everything a smartphone can do. But the real pièce de résistance came a year later, when the company opened the App Store, an online bazaar for games, utilities, and other applications created by third-party developers that opened up the iPhone and its iPod touch sibling to a smorgasbord of innovation. In just over five months, users have downloaded more than 300 million applications. Many are free. Some are just a few dollars apiece. "Software, not hardware, is what separates the iPhone from the pack," BusinessWeek tech columnist Stephen Wildstrom wrote in July. "The App Store will turn that gap into a gulf."