The first and highest-profile push application, available after last week's release of iPhone 3.0 software, is the Associated Press' news service application for the iPhone. This application and push service was beta-tested by iPhone developers prior to launch, and is easy to set up. From the iPhone's "settings," it's simply a matter of turning "push notifications" on, and then from the AP settings, deciding how you want to be notified -- with a text alert, with an alarm beep or with badges -- or all of the above.

It works. Over the last few days, AP has sent out several news alerts to my iPhone that came through just fine -- sometimes a few minutes after a news event. It's not as fast as previous ways that worked just as well -- namely, SMS text notifications. For almost each push alert that AP sent out via its iPhone application, CNN's SMS alerts have gotten to my iPhone a few minutes faster.

Still, AP's push application works, is consistent, is effortless to set up and effortless to manage. Why is this a big deal? Because the same technology, applied to heavier applications like ERP (inventory notifications), digital health (medication reminders) and finance (say, alerts on commodity spot pricing), could have significant business implications over time. All developers need to get there, really, is to plunk down a few dollars on an iPhone developers kit, get the SDK, and away they go.

Yes, push has been available for years on the BlackBerry. But 1 million units of which smartphone sold last weekend?