The iPhone App Store has been open for just over 100 days now, and in that time I've downloaded dozens of different applications. I have a screen full of third party software that I occasionally use, including Twitterrific, NetNewsWire, and Wikipanion. However, I've generally found that the applications I use daily are those that come with the Phone: Safari, Calendar, Maps, and Mail, along with Phone, Text, and iPod.

This struck me a couple weeks ago, when I found an application that I've since been using whenever I have an idle moment. That application is the game Word Warp (which has both Paid and Free versions), a simple anagram style game similar to both Text Twist and Jumble. In Word Warp, you're given 6 letters and must attempt to find as many words as possible within two minutes. To advance to the next round, you must find at least one six letter word.

As I noted, I've had this game for a couple weeks now, and I still play it frequently. So what's different about this application from other games and apps I've downloaded, that has made it stick? First off, when compared to other games, Word Warp is pretty basic and it can be played in small chunks. Because each round is so short, I often play for just one or two rounds, or two to four minutes. This makes it much more practical as entertainment. There's also no gimmick that wears off after a few plays, as with many other games.

Compared to utilities, however, Word Warp is obviously not terribly useful. Word Warp provides nice mental exercise, but it's not performing a valuable function the way Maps, Calendar or other apps do. So why haven't other applications like Wikipanion, stuck with me more? I think the biggest hurdle for most applications is that the iPhone does so much already. Apple has already provided the software to do the most common tasks. I check my calendar every day, but I don't need to access Wikipedia on my iPhone too often. Obviously, if I don't need the functionality an application provides often, I won't use that application frequently.

Application developers are in a tough spot when it comes to making software stick with users. Apple leaves plenty of niches untouched, but for the iPhone to be a success it necessarily needs to handle the most common tasks right out of the box. That leaves application developers with two options: Find a smaller niche (such as Wikipedia lookups) to control or try to invent the next big thing (such as OmniFocus' location-based task-management).

This is the same dilemma found on the desktop, and I'm finding it greatly magnified on the iPhone, because I use far less third-party software. Ultimately, this is the nature of the software market in general - the biggest existing niches must be filled by the first-party vendors for their platforms to catch on at all. For developers to make sticky software, we must go after smaller markets or better yet, invent and attack new and up-and-coming niches.