Update 2.0.1 Made my Apps Useless

Question

I ran the update two days ago. Since running the update none of my apps work. All the App icons are still there but when you select an app it just tries to start but is unsuccessful and just pops back to the home screen. ALL DOWNLOADED APPS ARE DOING THIS, NOTHING WORKS!
I have tried to uninstall all the apps and re-install them with no success. I get the same result. I tried to download them with the iTunes software and then sync to the phone, again no success. I went to the Apps Store on my phone and it showed them as "Installed" so I could not try to re-install them using just the phone.
Does anyone out there have the same issue? This phone is becoming an non-productivity tool for me! Please tell me how to remedy this issue is you can.
THANKS - KEVIN

Answer 1

This 3rd party application issue is really frustrating. I am experiencing the same problem. Tomorrow morning I have a date with the local Genius Bar, which I am not expecting to be productive. At this point, I've given up on a user-based fix. It looks like a software/firmware issue to me. To that end, I've sent e-mails to AppleInsider, iPhoneAlley, and iPhoneAtlas. Maybe if we generate a little press, Apple will address the issue before 4th Quarter 2009. I would encourage everyone else to do the same.
I don't post a lot on these forums. So if I have breached the protocol, I apologize in advance.
Here's the post I sent:
Judging from the forums on apple.com, there seems to be a persistent and growing problem with third-party applications for the iPhone, both 1G and 3G, purchased through the App Store. For reasons no one has yet figured out, applications purchased from the App Store and installed either via the cellular network or iTunes mysteriously stop working and crash on launch. These are not jail-broken or otherwise hacked phones, but regular, out of the box, ATT compliant iPhones.
I have about 60 third-party applications purchased from the App Store, about $125 worth of software. None of them work. Only the Apple applications work. I'm not alone. The fixes posted on the apple.com iPhone discussions forum range from downgrading to iTunes 7.7 to erasing the iPhone and reinstalling the applications one at a time - all of which involve a lot of time and lost data. Like many others on the forum, I deleted everything from my phone, performed a hard-restart, and, ultimately, did a restore and reinstalled all of my third-party applications. Everything worked for awhile. Now, nothing works again. Again, I am not alone. Take a look at the iPhone forum on the discussions board and see for yourself.
None of the posted fixes seem to work. No one seems to know what exactly is causing the problem. The issue is affecting both firmware versions 2.0 and 2.0.1. People with 2 purchased applications - both free and paid - are having the same problem as those with 50. The number of applications doesn't seem to matter, nor does the specific applications themselves. Neither AppleCare nor the Genius Bar folks will acknowledge the problem, much less provide a viable solution. It would be a tremendous help to those of us who are just trying to get our iPhones to work properly if you would take a look at the issue and run a story.
Thank you very much.
Hopefully, someone will look into the story and run something about it.
DAL