iPhone developers displeased with new App store

The changes Apple made to its App Store through the release of iTunes 9 have left iPhone app developers both excited and cautious.

There's appreciation for changes that improve app exposure but some developers, particularly smaller ones, are seeing a decline in sales.

Beyond the ongoing controversy over Apple's management of the iPhone app approval process -- which culminated in the unusual public posting of Apple's response to an FCC inquiry about the way Apple vets apps -- there's the more mundane difficulty the company faces in managing its success.

Earlier in July, Apple reported that the App Store was selling over 65,000 apps. And developers are submitting about 8,500 new or updated apps every week.

For Apple, which gets 30% of every app sold, more applications mean more revenue, assuming they're paid apps. But for developers, more applications mean more competition and more difficulty being noticed. It's a needle-in-a-haystack scenario with more hay being added daily.