Apple's iPhone AppStore - despite being slammed by some as a 'protection racket' has alot to offer DIY developers.

Apple's iPhone AppStore - despite being slammed by some as a 'protection racket' has alot to offer DIY developers.

In the embryonic days of computers, the world of software was dominated by callow youths in their bedrooms - or in Bill Gates' case, a garage - with some of the greatest names in software starting with little more than a book on coding and a lot of free time. Yet as software became big business, the bedroom developer all but disappeared. No longer could one person produce a commercially viable title - instead teams of programmers and marketers were needed.

Now, the bedroom developer is being given a new lease of life, and it's all down to Apple and the much-hyped iPhone. The gadget has been an astonishing success - the Californian company claims that since the phone's launch last year, Apple has already become the world's third-largest mobile phone supplier in terms of revenue.

However, it wasn't until last July that the true capabilities of the iPhone started to be revealed, and Apple launched the App Store, a simple-to-use online shop selling software that can transform your iPhone, or iPod touch, into a device with a thousand uses. When it first launched, around 500 applications (a mixture of paid and free) were available, but now there are nearly 6,000 - last month brought the total downloads to 200 million.

The applications, almost all of which are made by 3rd-party developers, can turn your iPhone into a remote control for your laptop; a reference guide for making cocktails; a tool to measure the MPG of your car, and countless other features. Speaking during Apple's fourth-quarter earnings conference call in October, Steve Jobs, the company's co-founder and CEO said: "We've never seen anything like this in our careers... It is clear that customers are now attracted to iPhone not only for its amazing functionality and revolutionary multi-touch user interface but also for its unique ability to let users easily purchase, download, and use thousands of different applications."

Some developers were working under the radar on programs for the iPhone before the App Store, although they could only be run on specially hacked handsets - a process frowned upon by Apple. Now, by opening up the iPhone, Apple is encouraging a generation of DIY developers to turn from poachers to gamekeepers and get busy creating.

One of them is David de Niese, a 28-year-old British banker who first caught the programming bug at school. "We had a Commodore 64, but my mum and dad would limit the time my brother and I could use it," says De Niese. "While my brother used the time to play games, I'd use my two hours for development. Every Saturday my mum would drop me off at the library, and I'd spend my time reading the Commodore 64 Programmer's Reference Manual, the bible for writing code."