The biggest concentration of developers for Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone is in Northern California, as a story in The Wall Street Journal’s San Francisco Bay Area section points out. But the ubiquity of the Internet makes it possible for a software developer anywhere in the world to make apps.

According to Mobclix, which operates the largest ad exchange network on the iPhone, the largest number of app developers come from the U.S., followed by the U.K., Canada, Germany and Australia. But there are developers in such far-flung countries as Malta, Reunion, Brunei, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.

One example is Sameer Jain, the 39-year old founder of Net Solutions in Chandigarh, India. He established an iPhone app team alongside his mainstay Web app business almost a year ago. Of about 170 employees, about ten of them work on iPhone apps.

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Satoru Iwata, the president of Nintendo Co., is a self-proclaimed Apple Inc. (AAPL) fan. He carries an iPhone and uses a Mac laptop. So when Mr. Iwata says Nintendo and Apple aren’t competitors, he should know what he’s talking about.

Nintendo, whose gadgets and software dominate the portable-videogame market, faces the greatest risk from the emergence of Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch as gaming platforms. But Mr. Iwata says attempts to create a rivalry between the two companies make him “uncomfortable,” because he says it isn’t true. He argues the companies appeal to different consumers.

Yet Apple has made clear that it intends to go after Nintendo’s turf.

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At last month’s huge U2 show at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., how could you tell the difference between the professional photographers and your average amateurs?

Answer: the professionals were the ones whisked away after Bono and friends finished their third song, and the amateurs were still there, happily shooting to their heart’s content.

Nearly every person at any show these days is going to have some form of camera with them, be it a point-and-shoot, an iPhone or some other camera phone, and it seems that there is almost no way to imagine keeping all those devices out.

That new reality is forcing an increasing number of bands to come to grips with the fact that they can’t really control the images from their shows, and that, for the most part, they’re better off letting fans cram Facebook and Flickr with such pictures anyway.

“It’s an acknowledgment of the way technology is changing, and how much digital cameras have become a part of our lives,” Rob Sheridan, the creative director for Nine Inch Nails, told CNET News. “Now that everyone has video and still cameras in their phones, and pocket digital cameras take HD video and great quality pictures, not only is it impossible to keep cameras out of shows, but it’s fighting an increasingly uphill battle against what is now a cultural norm: people freely documenting their lives and the things they do to share it with friends and family.”

In fact, the only people who may emerge frustrated from this new paradigm are the professionals. For those shooting with credentials, the phrase is “three songs and you’re gone,” said Bob Carey, the president of the National Press Photographers Association, meaning that pros are generally allowed to shoot from a designated “pit” near the stage during a band’s first three songs, and then they have to leave.

Last month, I was one of those sporting a photo pass at the 96,000-fan U2 Rose Bowl show. And even as I was clicking away during those first three songs, I was acutely aware that there were hundreds of people even closer to the stage than I was, toting cameras capable of taking some pretty great pictures. Indeed, a quick Flickr search confirmed just that.

Little dynamos
Many of those fans–and thousands more throughout the Rose Bowl that night–were shooting with nothing more than a camera phone. And no one worries about the dissemination of images taken with devices like that. But some people were shooting with cameras like Canon’s new PowerShot G11, a little 12.5-ounce, 10-megapixel dynamo much more than capable of producing professional images.

So, while the professionals are being ushered out after those three songs, how is it that the fans are able to keep shooting?

The answer is camera policies in effect at concerts, which are almost always defined by the bands themselves. And conversations with people throughout the music industry make it clear that while there are no standard policies, and that the rules run the gamut from “anything goes” to “no pictures, please,” artists today are increasingly tolerant, even encouraging, of fans taking all the pictures they want.

Look, for example, at the Nine Inch Nails Web site, which spells out the band’s open camera policy, “inviting fans to capture the events with anything from a cell phone to a hi-def video camera.” The reason is clear: “The results have been overwhelming, filling our own galleries with thousands of images and videos from every show, and inspiring a number of ambitious fan-sourced video projects within the NIN community. Some of those projects are starting to surface now, and we couldn’t be happier with the way the fans have organized themselves and created some truly impressive work.”

Further, Sheridan told CNET News, even the proliferation of pictures of the band’s shows taken by fans hasn’t hurt its commercial interests.

“Despite the fact that our fans take thousands and thousands of their own photos at each NIN show with whatever camera they’d like, we still sell prints of live photos taken by me through a Web site called frcphotos.com,” said Sheridan. “This is presumably the type of thing that other acts would be trying to ‘protect’ by limiting photography at shows, but we’ve found that fans are still eager to purchase reasonably-priced professional prints, often taken at angles or distances that only someone working for the band would have access to.”

Some artists are clearly concerned about fans’ rights to take pictures, and go so far as to issue reminders when there are restrictions. For example, the indie rock due, Tegan and Sara, have sent tweets saying things like, “Hollywood Bowl restricts cameras that are deemed professional. This usually means cameras with a removable lens. So keep that in mind!!!” And, of course, other rock stars are not at all behind the notion of fans taking pictures. Among those are said to be Prince, Kanye West, Bjork, and others. At shows by those artists, security is known to assiduously stop people from taking pictures of any kind, even with camera phones, though one wonders just how effective such policies can be.

Less anti-camera attitudes
But clearly, anti-camera attitudes are becoming less and less prevalent these days.

“It’s something that artists have come to realize they have no control over,” said Abe Baruck, a manager who works with big-name acts like Journey, Clint Black, and Peter Wolf. It’s “more a realization that this is just the way people enjoy entertainment. They want to capture something for their own nostalgia (and it) just doesn’t go anywhere other than for their own use.”

That thinking is likely what is behind the restrictions on specific kinds of camera equipment at some shows, like U2’s, and on professionals. Even though millions of amateur photographers now own digital SLRs, there is still a mindset in the entertainment industry that anyone toting one at a concert is a professional and therefore should be limited in where and how they shoot.

That’s why some bands, like U2, make a point of allowing fans to take pictures, so long as they stick to lower-end equipment. “Since 2001, U2 has openly allowed fans to bring cameras to their shows,” reads the FAQ on the site U2tours.com. “Your camera, however, must be a point-and-shoot camera; DSLRs are not allowed.”

“It’s just a very simple calling card saying, ‘I’m a professional media person,’” Philip Blaine, a producer with Coachella promoter Goldenvoice, said of photographers with digital SLRs, “‘and I know how to utilize this media in a professional manner.’”

And while it’s generally bands that are setting camera policies, some venues have also asserted control over what fans can and can’t bring.

One example is the Hollywood Bowl, in Los Angeles. As evidenced by the tweet from Tegan and Sara, that venue imposes restrictions around certain kinds of equipment. A Hollywood Bowl spokeswoman said that that venue won’t let ticket-holders bring in professional-grade equipment.

Professional sports seem to largely work the same way. According to NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy, football fans are allowed to bring in any kind of still camera–though lenses are restricted to less than six inches long, for security reasons–they want. That policy is standard across the entire NFL, McCarthy added, and prohibits fans from bringing in any kind of camcorder.

The same basic policy applies to other sports, too. According to Nick Ohayre, a spokesperson for the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, fans are free to carry and use cameras at basketball games, so long as they don’t use flash and don’t bring large, professional equipment.

But over time, as the technology improves, it may become more common and force sports leagues and entertainers to pay more attention to what’s happening with imagery taken by the thousands of small devices fans bring with them to events, especially as the quality of pictures from those devices is often good enough for professional publication and licensing.

Some even think that band representatives need to do a better job of keeping up with what’s possible in technology.

“I don’t think they’re aware of some of (what’s possible) with new devices,” said Carey of the National Press Photographers Association. “I don’t think they’ve figured out the nuances of what point-and-shoots can do with photos and video.”

But the increasing permissive attitude toward letting fans shoot whatever photos they please may simply come down to the realities of what it would take to do a serious search of every one of the thousands of people who go through an event’s gates.

In the old days, said New York freelancer Lia Bulaong, if she wanted to sneak a camera into a show, she would hide its battery in her bra and then convince security she had brought her powerless camera into the show in order not to risk it being stolen from her car.

But in the last two or three years, she said, such subterfuge is pointless.

“No-camera policies just became extra ridiculous because pretty much everyone has a camera in their phone,” Bulaong said. “Venues can’t turn away camera phones and will never the capacity to check them in like they do coats and bags.”

Plus, she pointed out, more and more, the bands want to incorporate the fans’ phones into their shows.

“The one thing you will see at every concert now, regardless of the artist, is the moment when everyone has their camera phone out and the venue is awash in tiny lit up screens.”

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A self-described iPhone freak, designer Norma Kamali spends each morning reading the day’s headlines on her gadget’s current-events application. To unwind, she plays Scrabble on a game app. When her miniature dachshund Zeke acts up, Ms. Kamali looks up her iPhone’s encyclopedia on canine ailments.

Last month, Ms. Kamali entered the iPhone app business herself, launching a free application to sell looks from her three collections. From their phones, users can purchase 15 new looks from Ms. Kamali’s lines at eBay (EBAY) and Wal-Mart (WMT) as well as her high-end designer line. “In the fashion business, you see the runway collection, and then it’s a few months later that you actually get it, in stores,” Ms. Kamali says. “But we know that everybody is taking pictures during the shows and downloading them on YouTube—and what’s the big secret?” She adds: ” ‘We want it now!’ That’s the kind of attitude we’re at.”

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For students of the Chinese language, there is one electronic dictionary application that seems to stand in a class of its own, made by a small New York-based software company called Pleco.

Certain language learners (myself included) have been known to carry otherwise useless (and outdated) Palm (PALM) Pilots for the sole purpose of using the Pleco dictionary.

And while the long-awaited iPhone finally had its official China launch on Friday, Mandarin-speaking expats (many of whom already have unofficial iPhones), are asking: Where’s my ‘iPleco’?

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One of the frequently heard complaints about iPhone applications is that with more than 85,000 options, finding good ones can be tricky and time-consuming. Could the answer be yet another app?

Envio Networks on Tuesday is launching Chorus, a free app that shows users the ones their friends are trying out and suggests ones that might interest them. The Andover, Mass.-based company, which has received funding from Matrix Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners, specializes in social-networking technology and saw the Apple (AAPL) device as a good showcase for what it can do.

“We think that shared discovery is a very powerful concept,” said Manish Jha, Envio’s chief executive, who ran ESPN’s mobile unit previously.

To use Chorus, you register and add some friends, which you can do by inviting phone contacts, Facebook friends or even contacts in your immediate vicinity, who must also be Chorus users. You can then see apps they’ve added in an “activity feed,” which looks and behaves similarly to Facebook’s news feed.

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At its media event in early September, Apple (AAPL) threw down the gauntlet to Nintendo Co. and Sony Corp. (SNE). Dedicated gaming gadgets like the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable “seemed so cool,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s head of marketing, but “they don’t stack up against the iPod touch.” Now an industry research firm has come out with numbers that back up Apple’s challenge.

A study by DFC Intelligence, released on Friday, predicts that games for the iPhone and iPod touch (an iPhone without the cellular capabilities) will be the principal drivers for growth in the overall portable and mobile gaming market in five years.

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The easy single-handed operation of the iPhone1 is not one of its obvious selling points but is one of those little features that grows on you and becomes nearly indispensable. A portable networked computing and gaming device that can be easily operated with one hand can be used in a surprising variety of situations.

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China Unicom may have gotten a bad rap for its lackluster iPhone announcement this week, but its launch upstaged the event at the Apple (AAPL) store.

The iPhone did, in fact, draw a crowd today, despite a rare rainstorm that had streets jammed in Beijing. At China Unicom’s outdoor event, several hundred people lined up to be first to buy the phone. Several said they’d held out for years to buy it because they worried there would be quality problems if they purchased gray-market iPhones.

“The price is a little high, but we don’t care,” said one woman who lined up for over an hour to buy a 16-gigabyte iPhone with her boyfriend, who was shivering in the cold. “I don’t really care about that function,” said Zhang Yuan, a sales assistant for a distribution company who was also standing in line, referring to the Unicom iPhone’s lack of Wi-Fi.

Long rows of computers were set up to process all of the iPhone purchases.

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Apple Inc. (AAPL) is a master at creating buzz around its product launches. But as the popular iPhone approaches its official debut in China–the world’s largest mobile-phone market–consumers here seem anything but excited.

The buzz-killer is price. China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd., which will start selling the device Friday, is offering a version of the 32-gigabyte iPhone 3GS for 6,999 yuan ($1,024) without a service contract, which is the most popular way for people to purchase phones in mainland China. That compares with about the $800 consumers pay for the same product in nearby Hong Kong, which has different wireless carriers.

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