This was tech history happening right now. I just had to be a part of it, so I double-timed the last two blocks-running smack into the waiting line for the iPhone 3GS. A friendly Apple guy gave me a black umbrella for shade, and a pigeon promptly bombed it. Yet not even a stupid pigeon could dampen my enthusiasm.

We watched in earnest a recurring right of passage: The Apple salesperson in a light-blue shirt emerging from the Apple store to escort the next customer inside the iPhone 3GS sales area-roped off like some A-list Hollywood restaurant. The salesperson shakes their hand and asks, a little too wryly, "Are you ready?" Like a new parent, the soon-to-be-owner of an iPhone 3GS beams and nods. After waiting nearly two hours in line, I beamed and nodded, too.

There's no question the iPhone is giving birth to a new way of life on the Web. Eight out of 10 iPhone owners tap the mobile Internet every week, according to a recent Forrester Research survey, while only four out of 10 owners of those other smartphones do the same. The survey also says the iPhone attracts the young, educated and affluent. Moreover, iPhone owners are twice as likely as other mobile users to go online outside of offices and homes-that is, the iPhone and, more importantly, the mobile Web are quickly becoming a fixture of daily life.

Surely, some revelation is at hand. But what, exactly, is coming?

If you missed the harbinger in March-the beta release of the iPhone OS 3.0 SDK-here is the fateful passage appearing midway in an Apple press release: "Included in these APIs is the ability to leverage the incredible purchase model of the App Store within apps. In-App Purchases will allow developers to offer subscription content and provide the ability to sell new content and features in a simple and secure process."