Rumors have it that Apple is looking to emulate T-Mobile's Sidekick distribution platform with iTunes. Presumably they have employed the help of some of the Sidekick developers for this.

With the Sidekick service you first have to prove that you are a developer, and they give you a key which unlocks the phone for development access. When you have developed a stable app, you submit it to through an approval process and then the application is made available on the Sidekick/T-Mobile app site.

If this is the case with Apple, then they could control app approval, distribution, and even pricing through iTunes. It will likely be tightly controlled.

I think they know better than that. You can do pretty well on Inkling just by shorting every rumor about Apple.