It’s the iPhone economy, stupid

At WWDC earlier this month, Steve Jobs has some developers step onstage to demo their iPhone 3G software. Apparently, this is just a tiny taste of what’s to come. According to a Mercury News report, the iPhone is creating its own economy of developers scrambling to get their software to the iPhone 3G.

“I’m seeing an excitement among mobile developers that I’ve never seen before,” said Sam Altman, chief executive and co-founder of Mountain View-based Loopt, a location-based social networking service. “People who said they’d never start a mobile (applications) company because they didn’t want to rely on the carriers are now starting companies focused only on the iPhone.”

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster believes Apple could be creating a billion-dollar industry built around the iPhone. Munster said the applications were “more powerful and attractive” than anything he’d seen on a mobile device before.

Head on over to the Mercury News for the full report.