Intel is ready to release its “AppUp center” from Beta and launch the final version in September, the company said. The store was originally announced in September 2009 and made its beta debut last January. Developer feedback has been lukewarm, but if you prefer a dedicated netbook app store over traditional download services, Intel’s store may be worth a look.
Intel AppUp Center
Leigh Davies, application engineer at Intel, made the announcement at the Game Developer Conference in Cologne, Germany, earlier today. Intel is still heavily promoting the store and says that about 2500 developers have downloaded the SDK for its AppUp center. However, only 420 applications have been made available so far and there are only 137 free programs. The most popular category is games, which carries 208 different apps.
While the store is specifically designed for Atom-based netbooks so far (Intel has mentioned in the past that it would like to expand the store beyond netbooks eventually), it may be difficult to see the value of this download store at this time. The range of software is significantly below traditional download services such as download.com and while the screen design is designed to match the limited resolution of small netbook screens, the navigation is somewhat clumsy.
It is not difficult to see that the software portfolio is not growing fast enough and that Intel will have to make its store more appealing to developers, if it wants to turn the AppUp center into a promotional tool for netbooks and its Atom processor.
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