Some of these small outfits have been raking in thousands every month from the sale of applications useful to Singaporeans, such as event calendars, Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) rate calculators, bus guides and even speed camera warning tools.

Tangent Software's Upcoming Events calendaring software, for instance, has been downloaded 'over 10,000 times' at US$2 (S$3) for each download since its launch in August on Apple's App (Applications) Store, the official source for iPhone and iPod Touch software.

Read Chua Hian Hou's full story in Thursday's edition of The Straits Times.