Taking a cue from the success of their iPhone-optimized web apps, Google has announced their intentions to release native iPhone apps as soon as possible. This basically refers to Apple’s announcement of the iPhone 2.0 update and the release of the App Store for third-party application distribution. Vic Gundotra, Google’s vice president of engineering, said “We expect to have applications at Day One.” iPhone users are already familiar with the terrific Google Maps application, and if Google has their way, every application on your home screen will bear Google’s trademark. Make no mistake, however- Google is still fully supporting their Android platform. That said, it’s admirable of Google to be willing to explore other platforms, not just their own.