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Sure a million phones in three days is impressive even though it’s a drop in the bucket in terms of market share. But Apple now has nearly a solid 20% market share in the smart phone arena. It’s a small percentage of the total cell phone market, but Apple really doesn’t need to be too concerned about that. Smart phones are what corporate America uses, and that’s where Apple wants to be.

Most of the 10 million web app downloads from the Apple site have nothing to do with corporate America, but Apple isn’t too concerned about that either. What counts at this point is that they are being downloaded at a furious pace and developers are looking for ways to capitalize on them. That means eventually a lot of those web apps are really going to have some real functionality. Not that some of them don’t already, but we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg (and it must be said that most of the web apps available provide only the most rudimentary functionality).

The future of the iPhone is far more than virtual pets and games. There are web apps already available that give a tantalizing glimpse at what may lie ahead: a news web app that gives you links to Reuters news service in more than half a dozen languages. There are music apps, lifestyle apps, photography apps, travel apps, weather apps and utility apps among others. But there are also financial, reference and productivity apps.

eBay, Paypal and AOL have already developed web apps for their users. So have the Washington Post and New York Times. Why? Purely because their are millions of users out there and they are using their iPhones to buy millions of dollars worth of products from their phones. It’s pretty simply to buy something from eBay on your laptop, but it’s even simpler to do it with your phone. If consumers are able to make transactions quickly painlessly and securely over the phone, they will. And hundreds of companies are banking on it.

Working with Microsoft to integrate seamlessly with Microsoft exchange is an extremely important part of Apple’s strategy. It’s their access point into the corporate world.

A million phones means $200 million in sales in three days for Apple, but in spite of the hype and in spite of the glitches Apple has had with this release, it’s a lot more significant than the original iPhone release. This is a proven product now, and corporate America is climbing on board big time. That’s the real difference.

Certainly other manufacturers will climb on board, but Apple has once again shown its uncanny knack for getting the right product out at the right time and making it look incredibly simple. It’s not. But Apple wants you to believe it is. Because ease of use is putting iPhones in the hands of millions of folks with lots of ready cash to spend. A few free apps that are simply fun or practically useless will do a lot to oil the wheels of commerce and pave the way for serious applications that will account for some serious financial traffic over iPhones.

Apple, perhaps for the first time in its corporate history, has clout in corporate America.