Has anyone noticed how rapidly the applications for the Apple iPhone proliferate? Business, education, entertainment, games, medicine, music, news, reference, sports, travel, weather–every day there are more and more options, many of them free. Some are quite remarkable.

To me, however, the most remarkable thing is Apple’s approach to iPhone app development. Remember, this was the company that steadfastly refused to license its Macintosh operating system dating back to the 1980s, ceding massive market share to cloned Windows-based PCs. Debate will rage on forever as to whether or not that was a wise decision, but clearly Steve Jobs & Co. was paying attention.

The increasingly competitive smart phone race (Google’s new G1 phone uses the open-standard Android operating system) is making the PC wars look quaint by comparison. By facilitating independent developers’ application development, Apple is more likely to keep the iPhone’s features and functionality current.

Apple wisely recognized that we now live in an open-source world, and has found a way to thrive in it. Smart phone, smart company.