One of the (many) cool things about PAX East is that it hasn’t been entirely overrun by iOS-related things like GDC and WWDC. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing by any means, but it is nice getting a chance to see what the rest of the industry is up to. Anyway, when the Mac App Store launched, we did some barebones coverage of some Mac games, and a few sales. We also made some suggestions that the Mac App Store could serve as a glimpse in to what could potentially be coming to the iOS App Store.
As it stands, that still hasn’t really happened, but what has been curious to watch is how popular iOS apps trickle out to other App Stores. The App Store in this particular instance of note is Intel’s initiative called “AppUp“. Originally targeted at netbooks, AppUp is home to apps that basically run on almost any Windows-based PC with plans for supporting the MeeGo tablet platform.
It would be easy to write this off as yet another clone of the App Store, but consider this: AppUp likely has the absolute largest pool of potential customers out there. The apps they’re selling are targeted at the meager system specifications of your typical netbook, which means most of them will also likely run on any reasonably recent PC. Also, they’ve managed to meet the benchmark of a legit App Store by offering Angry Birds as well and it’s hard to deny the power of Intel as a company when it comes to shaping the world of computing.
I’m not sure where AppUp will go, but I have to admit I do find the whole thing oddly intriguing. If you’re on a PC, give the client a download and check it out. I can’t wait to see how all of these different markets settle out in the next 5-10 years and what effect they have on the App Store. AppUp seems to have a significant advantage due to the sheer number of capable hardware out there, Intel just has to make people aware of the service.
