Apple does have the ability to remotely manage applications on the iPhone, said chief executive Steve Jobs.

The Apple co-founder said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that the popular handset does, in fact, contain a mechanism that will allow the device to contact Apple's web site and delete software that the company has deemed harmful.

"Hopefully we never have to pull that lever, but we would be irresponsible not to have a lever like that to pull," Jobs told the newspaper.

The admission confirms a situation first reported nearly two weeks ago by independent researcher Jonathan Zdziarski, who discovered a file in the iPhone's firmware that links to an Apple XML page containing a blank "black list" for malicious applications.

It is not known whether the file Zdziarski uncovered that manages malicious applications was the exact protection tool mentioned by Jobs.

On a lighter note, Jobs also told the Wall Street Journal that sales of iPhone applications were booming. He estimates that the company is averaging some $1m per day in sales from the App Store.

Apple keeps 30 per cent of sales revenue with the remainder being paid to the developer. The company is said to have a similar deal with record labels for the iTunes music store.

Jobs said that the company has paid roughly $21m to developers so far. The top 10 developers on the service have hauled in some $9m since the store was first launched in July.

"I've never seen anything like this in my career for software," Jobs was quoted as saying. "Who knows, maybe it will be a $1bn marketplace at some point in time."