Intel rushes to set up app store for netbooks

In case you haven't heard yet, Intel will be launching an app store for netbooks in 2010. Working together with PC makers, Intel plans to pre-install the store on these systems. With 50 million netbooks expected to be sold by the end of this year, and Intel's new "Pine Trail" Atom processor due to launch later this month, it is easy to see why Intel would be so interested.

Scott Apeland, director of Intel's Developer Network, told CNET midweek, "The Atom Developer Program doesn't favor one OS over another, and at its core, the program is meant to facilitate development across multiple OSes...we plan to expand support to different run-time environments, including Adobe AIR and Microsoft Silverlight."

Developers will get 70 percent of the revenue, which is similar to the formula used by Apple's app store. When pressed about launch dates however, Apeland declined to divulge any specific timeframe.

Highlighting the amount of interest in its app store, Intel claims that "tens of thousands" are checking out the site, with "thousands" signing up--even prior to the release of any SDK or tools. The platforms currently supported right now are Windows and Moblin, and developers who are interested can now access the Atom Developer Program SDK here.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at CNET News

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