What I find most interesting about the iPhone App Store gold rush is the way Apple is combining its platforms -- online, mobile, traditional advertising -- to benefit the company and external developers.

From the New York Times:

IBird was one of three applications that appeared in the [advertising] spot, and while it got only about seven seconds, that was all it needed to become the No. 1 "reference" app in the iPhone App Store, a software star among the 35,000-plus applications now crowding the store's shelf. [Link added.]

On a broader level, the more I study the interaction between the Web, audiences and revenue streams, the more I'm convinced that platform, naturally scarce products, and attention are the most important resources in the digital realm (they're important off-line, too, but geography and other physical elements shift the dynamic).

I know economists would smirk at my elementary platform-scarcity-audience analysis, but there's another component here: sustainable digital businesses arise when all three elements are present. That's one key difference between Twitter -- which has platform and audience, but no scarce products -- and Apple.

Hand-Picked Related Links

• iPhone Ads (Apple)
• Coder's Half-Million-Dollar Baby Proves iPhone Gold Rush Is Still On (Wired)
• iPhone Developers Go From Rags to Riches (Wired)
• There's Gold In Them iPhones (Newsweek)