Dear iPhone developers, dig deeper.

Unless you live under a bridge (and in that case, how are you reading this?), you may have heard a little something about the new iPhone and and 2.0 firmware update released today (and leaked yesterday). I was impressed on my first pass through the App Store. There is a broad selection, wide variety, and a good selection of free applications.

Upon further inspection, I’m disappointed in how few application that really take advantage of the iPhone’s revolutionary platform. In fact, a good chunk of applications are just websites (not iPhone websites, desktop websites) dumped into a local applications or apps using the stock interface builder widgets. Where is the imagination?

The iPhone isn’t just a portable web browser, it can do so much more:

• It can see: The iPhone has a decent built-in camera that can be use for so much more than snapping pictures. Think about using it as a bar code scanner, or facial recognition, or stripped-down video chatting.
• It can hear: The microphone can be used for much more than making calls. What about voice command or voice-to-text. (Side note: There are a few Guitar Tuner applications that look amazing).
• It can speak: On board speaker means sounds and voice cues. Remember, people are using this thing on the go, it would be nice if they didn’t have to distract themselves to look down.
• It can find itself: The iPhone can triangulate itself (or use A-GPS) to find out where it’s at. Think about how that changes the context of your application.
• It knows when it’s moving: The complex set of sensors under the hood are constantly monitoring velocity and orientation of the phone. It even knows when you face is next to it.
• It has multi-touch: Your finger is more than just a cursor. You can tap, drag, pinch, and spread.

No doubt there are some fantastic applications that stand out among the sea of To-Do managers and find-your-friends-on-a-map apps, but no game changers yet.