Apple CEO Steve Jobs claims that iPhone customers have downloaded over 60 million applications from its ‘App Store’ in its first 30 days of launch, generating around US$30 million in sales. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Jobs says the company sold an average of US$1 million a day in applications since the store went live on July 11 to coincide with the launch of the 3G version of the iPhone. If sales stay at the current pace, Jobs says that Apple stands to make at least US$360 million a year in new revenue from the store. Apple is retaining 30 percent of the proceeds from application sales while developers keep 70 percent. Jobs also confirmed rumours that Apple has included code in the iPhone that gives it the ability to remove third-party software that it deems malicious. “Hopefully we never have to pull that lever, but we would be irresponsible not to have a lever like that to pull,” he says. Separately, Fortune magazine claims that Apple has sold 3 million iPhone 3G devices since launch a month ago.

Meanwhile, speculation is mounting that T-Mobile USA is planning to replicate Apple’s App Store business model by opening up its own application platform to allow software developers to create applications across its entire range of phones. According to reports, T-Mobile USA is currently advertising for software developers on its website and – like Apple – is considering adopting a revenue-sharing model.