We're not necessarily talking about the best iPhone apps here--we listed (and we'll do so again, in a much bigger way, at the end of this year). Rather, we're focusing on apps that made an impact, whether by way of quality, innovation, popularity, or sheer chutzpah.

We asked our iPhone-using editors to name the most significant apps to appear on the scene since the App Store's July 2008 launch and came up with a list of 12--one for each month that the App Store's been open. Not every app on our list is a must-have--the presence of a gas-passing simulator should be your first clue there. But we think this collection represents apps that, for better or worse, have defined the iPhone platform. These are the programs that, a year into the App Store's existence, give us an overview of the state of third-party development for the iPhone.e--

Sure, you can access Amazon.com on your iPhone using Safari, but makes a compelling case for the superiority of a dedicated shopping app. As you'd expect, it lets you search for products on Amazon, giving you quicker-than-the-Web access to prices, descriptions, and user reviews. And by linking up with your Amazon.com account, you can buy items right on your phone without having to tediously re-enter your shipping and purchasing details; you can also save items for later or add them to your Wish Lists. But the coolest feature is Amazon Remembers: If you see an item while you're out and about--even if it's just a book or gadget at a friend's place--you can take a photo of it using your iPhone's camera. The app sends the photo to Amazon, and a few minutes later you get an e-mail identifying the item and linking to Amazon's shopping page for it; the item is also saved to your Remembers list in the app and in your account on Amazon.com. If you do quite a bit of your shopping on Amazon anyway, Amazon Mobile is like having a personal shopping assistant, and it gives us a taste of how a multi-function mobile device can enhance everyday tasks (Free; ).