A quick glance at the multitude of stories in our conversation section below shows that quite a few people are amazed that after months of forbidding any third-party browsers entrance into the App Store, Apple has suddenly, with no formal announcement or fanfare, allowed a few in. This effectively amounts to Apple changing its long-standing policy against software that seemingly competes with the Apple-branded software on the iPhone and iPod touch.

Below, we take a quick look at why tech geeks everywhere are making this an important point of discussion, how Apple has actually also reversed its stance on previous policies, how we shouldn't be surprised by any of this, and how the homebrew application community may be forcing Apple's hand this time around in switching its policy, giving you more choices.

The first part of this equation is easy: thanks to the devoted fanbase of Apple users and Apple's increasing success as a mobile phone, media player, and computer manufacturer, selling more and more stuff and making more money in all three areas even in the midst of a recession, Apple is a company to watch and discussing its every move increases traffic to all the websites reporting on it, including Obsessable.

Since Steve Jobs first claimed that the App Store was pulling in a million dollars a day, the App Store has been both part of the reason for the success of the iPhone and iPod touch as well as a viable means of making money for many third-party developers thanks to the hungry owners of iPhones and iPod touches who want new cool applications for their devices. Because of this, any news about what Apple does and does not accept to the App Store has been widely reported.

One of the major reasons for Apple's continued success as a company has been its ability to change and adapt and to even go back on its previous stance, multiple times, based on what the market needs and how Apple can best fill that need. There was a time when Apple claimed it was only a computer manufacturer and that everything else it did was to support that business. Then Apple introduced the iPod, years after MP3 players first hit the market, and took over that market.

A good portion of this year's Macworld keynote focused not on hardware, but on Apple software, like iWork, that is set up to someday challenge the reigning king of office productivity software, Microsoft Office. For a long time, Steve Jobs claimed that there would never be video on the iPod because the screen was too small for watching video. Now, every model of iPod, with the exception of the screenless iPod shuffle, can play back video and what was once the iTunes Music Store has become the iTunes Store, because Apple began selling TV shows and movies on it.

Not only that, after Apple repeatedly said that a rental model didn't make sense, you can now rent videos on iTunes. For years, Apple claimed that Power PC processor chips were far superior to Intel chips, and then Apple switched to an all Intel platform. Then Apple began enabling people to install Windows on its machines via Boot Camp. 

Not long ago, everyone was in an uproar about mail applications not being allowed in the App Store because, according to Apple, the applications were competing with the default Apple Mobile Mail application. Not long after this outcry occurred, Apple let a third party email application into the App Store. Developers of the Opera browser stated that their browser for iPhone was forbidden access to the App Store by Apple, and now the same sort of flip flop has happened and other browsers have been allowed entrance. Opera still hasn't been allowed, but browsers based on Apple's Webkit have been. Why? Well, there's two reasons.

The first reason is simply because Apple can do whatever it wants to do and it regularly does.

The second reason is because Apple remains highly aware of the market and makes strategic moves to best take advantage of it. This is good for all the members of the market out there, including you if you own an iPod touch, an iPhone, or use iTunes, as well you if you own or use competing products. The more Apple reacts to the needs of the market, the more choices will open up for you if you are using and fond of Apple products and the more Apple's competitors will attempt to innovate and compete with Apple with more choices if you tend to use non-Apple products.

While Apple is definitely reacting to the market in this instance, the cries of outrage of developers and devoted Apple fans that such applications would be banned from the App Store probably has minimal affect on Apple's decisions here. What is most likely affecting their decisions are the multitude of free solutions available outside of the App Store to any owner of an iPhone or iPod touch who chooses to jailbreak his/her device.

Jailbreaking is a rather simple software process that removes a barrier that Apple has put in place on these devices so that software that has not been approved by Apple, that has been developed by homebrew developers working outside of Apple's control and restraints, can be installed on these devices. There are numerous free applications available to any user willing to jailbreak his / her iPhone or iPod touch.

The ease of availability of those applications is what pushes Apple to change its stance on competitive applications and will most likely continue to push Apple to change any such stances. To do otherwise is to sacrifice some potential bit of extra money and part of that one million dollar plus market of applications on the iPhone and iPod touch that Apple wants to control and dominate. Apple cannot get any cut of software it never allows in.

All of this is good news for you, the consumer, because less restrictions on what is allowed inside the App Store means that more developers will be able to make more money developing for the App Store. This in turn will offer you more choices. The success of the App Store will also continue to push other such emerging mobile application stores for other competing devices, like the Google Android store, the promised Palm Pre store, and Microsoft's mobile marketplace, to create even more choices for you.

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