Apple's vice president for iPod and iPhone product marketing, Greg Joswiak, caught up with the UK press this last weekend, telling The Standard (not unpredictably) that “The App Store changed everything.”

Joswiak is of course referring to the 100,000 apps now available through the App Store, and the more than two billion apps downloaded by iPhone and iPod touch users so far.

The Apple VP is described as, “soft-spoken and with a penchant for floral shirts,” as he spoke with the paper during a London visit last week. He admits the phenomenal success of the store surprised everybody.

"The App Store has just continued to go beyond anyone's expectations. We now have more than 100,000 applications for sale in just 16 months. Nobody could have ever imagined it being so successful."

Joswiak also sees the App Store as offering opportunities to smaller developers, offering as it does a free and slick development environment, and in a stab, presumably at the likes of Nintendo, he says, “The App Store really levels the playing field for the small guys, who just couldn't write for other games systems because it is so expensive.”

With the company continuing to develop from its iPhone base and talk of a tablet-based Mac/iPhone combination set to ship next year, these opportunities are likely to improve, though App discovery and recommendation remain the challenge for developers seeking to enhance their chance.