148apps.com reports that there have been more than 10,000 iPhone apps released to date. The site tracks application releases and also has some interesting breakdowns of where applications fall into different categories and price points.

About a quarter of total applications are free, for example, while about 35 percent cost $0.99 (seems to be the sweet spot for paid apps). The average cost is $3.15, while all 10,000 apps would set you back about 30 grand. In terms of categories, games are the clear winner, not surprisingly.

Though local isn’t broken out specifically, many local apps fall into the “utilities” category (some are classified as lifestyle or travel), which ranks third at about 1,000 apps. More specifically, about 15 percent of applications utilize the location capabilities of the phone.

As we’ve said many times, local’s percentage of iPhone activity (and other next generation devices) will be a larger stake than its percentage of online activity. This has a lot to do with the use case of the device, conducive to finding things locally while out and about, and the fact that location awareness is baked right in.

We’ll be taking a closer look at mobile local search in ’09, including forecast data on mobile usage and mobile ad revenues. It will also be important to take a qualitative look at how advertising will evolve with mobile data consumption and usage patterns.

For example, we could see more CPA or transactional advertising in things like local shopping search (a hot topic this week). This could come about with increased access to store inventory data, and greater potential for promotions or coupons given that the device is with you at the point of purchase.

Picture standing in front of a store shelf and being able to get real-time price comparisons (and availability) from other stores across town. In our discussions with local shopping search companies like TheFind and NearbyNow, this is precisely how they’re thinking. These types of mobile search utilities in retail and many other local categories could see a lot more development and commercial interest in ’09. We’ll be watching closely.