Last month marked the 10th anniversary of the App Store, which Apple celebrated by marking all of the milestones hit and the lives changed. Now, The Wall Street Journal has shared an interview from August of 2008 with Steve Jobs in which he talks about his hopes for the App Store and much more…

The Wall Street Journal is jointly publishing both the audio and transcript of the interview, in partnership with The Information, for the first time. The interview occurred on August 7th, 2008 – nearly one month after the App Store launched – with then WSJ reporter Nick Wingfield.

First and foremost, Jobs likened the App Store for iPhone to iTunes for the iPod, saying that it served as a way of enhancing a device with internet-delivered content:

Jobs was then asked roughly how many new apps were hitting the App Store every day – to which he said there were roughly 50 new ones launching every day. That’s a number that feels minuscule in comparison to where we are today.

We’re enhancing it with an internet service to deliver content right to the phone. In this case, since we already bring the iTunes music content to the phone, we’re bringing applications.

We think that the result…It’s the same exact strategy as the iPod. Enhance the device with internet-delivered content. Beyond iTunes, we can wirelessly deliver the content right on the device, without a PC. We can automatically update the apps. It’s standing on the shoulders of iTunes.

Steve Jobs introducing the App Store in 2008

The conversation then turned to taste issues and Apple’s role in moderating the apps that are submitted to the App Store:

Jobs then touted that users had downloaded over 60 million apps from the App store over the first 30 days. Again, that’s a stat that seems tiny compared to where we are today, with Apple touting last year that the App Store had 180 billion downloads to date.

We have to go back to them and say, “Hey, we’ve got to take your app down.” Copyright owners have given some inputs here. We have to take the apps down until they work it out with the copyright owner

One of the most interesting parts of the interview is hearing Jobs talk about the future of the App Store. He explained that perhaps, one day, the App Store would be a billion dollar market place. Last month, Apple touted that $100 billion had been paid to developers.

The mobile industry’s never seen anything like this. To be honest, neither has the computer industry.

At one point in the interview, Jobs actually called Eddy Cue because he was unsure of how developers were able to track their downloads and earnings:

Jobs also breaks down which apps he had on his iPhone:

Jobs concludes the interview by describing how the App Store and apps in general will evolve over time, saying that at that time, they were just at the tip of things.

MR. JOBS: I bought some games. Yelp. I like Yelp. I bought Mandarin. You know Mandarin Phrase? Have you seen that?

MR. WINGFIELD: No.

MR. JOBS: This one’s cool. It’s a Mandarin audio phrasebook. This would be great if you were at the Olympics today. I’ve got the New York Times app. The Wall Street Journal doesn’t have an app. [laughter] I’ve got Epocrates, I’ve got Anatomy. You’ve seen the Netter’s Anatomy, right?

MR. WINGFIELD: Yeah, that’s the one with all the colorful illustrations.

MR. JOBS: Yeah, I’ve had their book forever, and I love anatomical drawings. I’ve got Facebook, I’ve got Units, I’ve Sudoku. I’ve got a great Sudoku game, which I’m actually getting pretty good at. I’ve got Bloomberg. The Facebook app’s pretty cool. A lot of people are using it.

The full interview transcript and audio can be found on The Wall Street Journal. There’s much more there and it is definitely worth a read or listen.

They can be mighty useful and we’re just at the tip of that. That’s going to be huge, I think.