Iphones..marketers and advertisers really want to tap that resource..particularly the apps. But with so many to choose from why bother?

There’s over 100,000 Iphone apps currently available to choose from and apparently Adobe’s CS5 is going to make creating your own application even easier, so prepare for iphone apps to become one of those pre-apocolyptic predictions such as there are more iphone applications than people in Australia.. So what are the top applications out there and how long before someone goes digitally postal on the app store? Mashable’s list of the top phone applications for 2010 certainly provides some food for thought.

First up, the top 10 augmented reality applications. The laying of digital technology over reality has some exciting possibilities and Le Bar Guide has to be a winner for marketing potential at least. Created by Stella Artois, it will help people to find the closest bar with ratings and even point you in the direction of the taxi stand. The rest of the list is either inane, very function specific, limited or downright silly.

Next up? 70+ free social networking apps. Too many, too many. How many of these could be worth anything to a brand or advertiser? How many will still be in use next year? How many have already seen their peak usage and will suffer a slow decline as they are discarded in favour of the next flash in the pan application? The numbers say Facebook is where the action is followed by Twitter. After that we have to wait and see who steps up with something useful and capable of stealing some of that thunder.

But speaking of Facebook there is also the top ten apps that use Facebook Connect on the iphone. They’re still a little bit too much of a novelty but apps such as LuckyCal appear to be something that people could truly enjoy using. It essentially identifies friends near you and activities in the area that correspond to your interests. And anything that lets friends play online games together by connecting through Facebook is awesome. Game developers should consider allowing brands to sponsor tournaments and give out decent prizes. That’s pretty much a win win situation for all. I’m already imagining a world where my friends and I play the Nike penalty shootout app between us and the winner gets a pair of sneakers. It might have heavy branding and the game might be a little subpar but the idea of competing amongst friends for real prizes could really excite consumers. Ok the logistics of all these events and the costs of the prizes would have to be worked out but an app linked to a website with both connected to Facebook Connect could really start something. Make the grand prize something your target market really wants and you could start a big ball rolling..

Speaking of facebook games.. I started Dantes Inferno in the Facebooks application section. It's a promo for the full game and allws you to enlist your friends. Maybe the idea was good at one stage but if I have a full length big budget game coming out, I don't want it promoted with a really frustrating and stupid mini version..