Putting folders anywhere would mean that they would work similar to the way folders work in the Finder. Tap a folder and it opens. There would have to be some screen element to allow the user to go back a directory. Possibly an icon labeled “..”, but that’s too much like Linux/Windows.

If using iTunes is out of the question. A possibility might be Tags. Something similar to the way Gmail works. Put in a keyword in Spotlight and it displays all the apps that have been given that keyword. You could use similar names like you would with folders. Editing the Tags would be tricky. You would have to get the icons to start jiggling, then tap the icon. That would bring up a page that would allow you to add Tags, maybe rate the app. Something similar to what is happening with some apps in the OS X and Meta-tagging files and applications.

Another possible method might be what a new OS X Widget is doing. The Widget is called AppScreen Widget: http://www.shareappscreen.com/

It brings up an interface that looks like an iPhone/iPod touch screen with all the applications you currently have installed displayed in it. It uses 11 horizontal pages as well as a number of vertical pages to accommodate all the apps that are installed in iTunes. You drag icons around just like on the device. It also has an “inbox” that it puts new apps into when it finds them on a new scan. You can use that inbox as a temp holding zone to move apps from one page to another.

One way or another, something has to be done to allow us to use more than the 180 apps spots that are available now.