iTunes Preview now available for iPhone app browsing

It doesn't seem like much, but iTunes Preview is the first step in what could end up being the evolution of iTunes from a software app to an online service. The feature was launched for music late last year, and now it's available for iPhone and iPod touch apps as well.

In a nutshell, iTunes Preview allows you to window shop for content in your browser whether you have iTunes or not. Previously, clicking on an iTunes link for an application resulted in nothing but a dialog box that re-routed you to a page in the iTunes software. Now you see a clean page in your browser with all the information you need.

Of course, the problem with all of this is that if you have iTunes on your desktop, the app still launches automatically when you view the webpage. You still need to purchase the app through the software, so the redundancy is understandable, but it is irritating nonetheless. Hopefully that will be adjusted down the line.

To try it out for yourself, check out this iTunes link for ESPN ScoreCenter.