I came across an interesting statistic doing research on the iPhone application category hierarchy.

Based on July 2009 figures from O’reilly research, Games by far was the leading application category with a  21% share of unique apps.  Entertainment, Books, Utilities, and Education follow Games to round out the top 5 most popular categories.  The biggest surprise was the huge popularity of the News category with a whopping 253% increase from 12 weeks prior.

Why is News so popular and what does this mean?  Well, it probably means more and more users like to get their news from the iPhone reader, rather than usual sources like their favorite news websites, magazines or printed newspapers.  This is probably because of overall convenience…news anytime, anywhere.

The fact is, every newspaper will have to provide its users a functional iPhone news reader app soon.  I think they will eventually have to charge for their content as well.

Currently, I like the way the WSJ charges for their content.  They mix free with premium content to entice users  to ultimately subscribe to a monthly plan.  To date, this seems to be working for the #1 newspaper in the U.S.