Steve Jobs and his Apple cohorts announced that the Apple iPhone Application Store (App Store) will be online starting in early July, and on board will be lots of software for both the iPhone and its iPhone 3G baby brother, including an update to the iPhone system software itself, soon to be version 2.0. While the Applians didn’t say exactly how many apps would be available at the store’s launch, there were about a dozen applications demonstrated at the keynote event.

Headlining the list was a free eBay app that streamlines bidding and browsing, lots of smooth-playing games that looked plenty sophisticated (most will cost $9.99), a music program called Band that lets you compose and play music, a couple of medical apps, a news and video browsing app from the Associated Press, an intriguing dedicated Major League Baseball application that can feed stats and video clips soon after they’ve happened, and a great blogging app for TypePad users.

What a difference a faster 3G iPhone and open development makes!

Via Apple