I’m in awe of the tens of thousands of games and widgets that are now part of Apple’s App Store.

This touch-screen ecosystem doesn’t net big bucks for most developers. Many apps are free; most sell for under $10. But the fact that more than 10 million miniature applications – with quirky names like Midomi and ShoZu — have been downloaded thus far means that it can add up quickly.

The phenomenon is not limited to the consumer space. Salesforce.com has been encouraging developers to post their zany inventions in its AppExchange so there’s more stickiness with subscribers, some of whom might be tempted to leave for a cheaper software-as-a-service sales automation tool.

What has been less apparent, both in the B2C and B2B marketplaces, is a burgeoning service industry surrounding many of these large software innovations or online communities.

Just as Joseph Jaffe and his pals created the agency Crayon a few years back to monetize the frenzy around those setting up communities and businesses in Second Life, a number of PR pros and marketers are specializing in Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Few argue that experimentation and innovation are not vital to keeping brands relevant in today’s business world, so there is strong demand for a helping hand to prevent potentially highly visible online missteps.

The one category of service business we’ve seen and heard about the most is monitoring and gisting services. Corporations and agencies gladly pay services like Techrigy and Radian6 to learn what is being said about them and competitors online. (see Dan Schwabel’s list of players here.)

But monitoring alone does not give companies a voice in the conversation. That’s where England’s Twit4Hire.com, Australia’s Twitter Agency and similar outsourced service models pop up, along with Twitter practices inside traditional PR firms and ad agencies.

It remains to be seen whether this model will scale. Just as there are dangers of not being on Twitter, it is equally risky to task third parties with the upkeep of a brand – especially in an environment where authenticity and trust are such precious attributes.

Another service model that is flourishing, at least on Facebook, guarantees at least a million views of videos to audiences that can be targeted by age, gender and other demographics. Involver.com appears to be the Typhoid Mary of viral video.

While most of the world is in a recession, the stimulus package for risk-taking service providers is just a mouse click away.