I remember writing one decade ago, about the time 3G operator licences were being auctioned, how high-speed mobile networks would soon enable a host of mobile applications and services on our mobile phones. Everything from up-to-the-minute stock price tracking, through watching video clips of the latest goals from the football league, to communicating with your refrigerator.

The technology to deliver such wonders has now been around for many years – but the optimistic predictions of the late 1990s have taken a little longer to come true for mobile apps. One issue was the operator-centric model that took hold in ‘mobile Internet’ applications. Operators seemed to be less than keen for their subscribers to explore outside their own ‘walled gardens’. And the user experience of downloading and using the limited array of mobile applications available was usually frustrating and fiddly.

Then, in 2007, along came the Apple iPhone. With its customary focus on serving consumer needs – and creating a solid business model – Apple reinvented the smartphone and, along with it, the world of mobile applications.

Since Apple first opened the doors to its iTunes App Store, we have downloaded more than 1.5 billion mobile apps from it, according to the company. Developers are queueing up to get new ones on to Apple’s virtual shelves, which are already bursting with more than 65,000 applications.

So the key to unlocking the now-burgeoning market for mobile apps turned out to be making them easy for consumers to browse, acquire and use – who knew?

Now that Apple has shown the way, other mobile device makers – along with several software vendors and mobile operators – are playing catch-up. Recent months have seen a plethora of mobile application store launches and revamps from the likes of Google, LG, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, O2, Orange, Palm, RIM, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Sun Virgin Mobile and Vodafone.

While this is all very positive, there is potentially a new challenge brewing for the industry. How long are consumers going to be happy to purchase a mobile app from a particular store and not be able to use it on any other device of their choice?

Perhaps the industry needs to learn from its own example of agreeing to standardize mobile device battery chargers, and create a similarly open model for mobile applications?

After all, who would argue against having a standardized way of developing, acquiring and using mobile applications freely across different devices?

What do you think – should mobile apps be standardized, or is the loss of control over a significant new revenue stream too much to ask of mobile operators and handset makers?