Why AppUpSM ? — A Quick Review of the AppUpSM Model

The app store gapHowever, the market is evolving. Devices come in all flavors, sizes, and shapes. A store per manufacturer, per carrier, or devices will again lead to fragmentation. What about when we get apps on our TV’s, netbooks, PC based tablets, and other smart consumer electonics outside of the smartphone model? How do we get those apps as conveniently as we do on our phones? And what if I have apps purchased from my PC, or TV and now I’m on the road using a netbook and I want that app? Also, what if you, as a developer, create a new service or capability that helps deliver solutions for the store and or developers?

What’s missing is a model that allows developers to get their apps and compo-nent services into a store framework for distribution across many devices, many manufactures, and service providers, while also allowing consumers to get ac-cess to apps they may have purchased on other devices.

Why app stores matter The launch of recent smartphone app stores is relevant. Smartphones are a new computing device that require a new service to sell, distribute, and purchase apps for that device. Existing solutions do not suffice. These new phones required a single and convenient gateway to browse and purchase verified applications for that device. With this new app store model you can, within seconds, anytime and anywhere, have an app working on your device. No longer do you need to hunt across many websites, using a variety of installers, with disparate reviews and different methods for purchasing the app. There is one standard for distribution, search, browsing, rating, purchasing, and installing applications. This makes it extremely easy and convenient for consumers and developers.

The AppUpSM modelThis is where AppUp comes in. AppUp is an app store framework designed to allow developers to submit apps or app compo-nents to stores that serve various devices and operating systems, where those apps are sold by various manufactures, service providers, and retailers. And from a con-sumer’s perspective, we allow for them to have the AppUp client installed on multiple systems where their existing purchases are tracked and available for download across compatible systems.

So with AppUp you get the benefits of what Apple started with their AppStore, along with the opportunity to distribute and buy apps across manufacturers, ser-vice providers, and device types.

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Originally published as a blog by Bob Duffy at :http://appdeveloper.intel.com/en-us/blog/2010/08/22/why-appup-quick-review-appup-model

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Intel launched a beta version of its AppUpSM Center online store in January in 2010. Under the beta program developers have known AppUpSM as a single storefront primarily supporting netbook applications developed in C/C++. Unfortunately, this history does not put the overall value of AppUp in proper context. Here's a look back and forward to help you know what to expect with AppUp.

development for AppUp. For Windows* apps we allow wrappers to be imple-mented around any language or runtime that Windows can support. Thus, if your app is not written in a language our SDKs support then a wrapper solution allows you to use one of our natively supported languages as a layer in your application for our SDK. Meanwhile, your app runs in its native environment. The message here is that choice is at the cornerstone of the AppUp model. You can develop apps using the tools, languages, and runtimes that best suit your app needs.

Broadening OS, device, and storefont optionsCurrently, AppUp supports Windows and Moblin™ aligning with the prevalent OS’s for netbooks systems. As we broaden Ap-pUp to other devices, our support for op-erating systems will also broaden. MeeGo is a new, full-featured OS that is designed to support netbooks, new smartphones, tablet devices, smart TVs, and more. Intel and Nokia announced MeeGo as the next-generation OS that marries the best of Moblin™ and Maemo* operating systems. Shortly after, in May, the netbook version of MeeGo was released. In October the handset and tablet versions of MeeGo is slated to be released. Things are moving quickly, and we can expect an AppUp cli-ent to follow for each of these devices.

On the store-front side of things, the Ap-pUp Center beta store launched as an Intel store. However, as expressed earlier, the model is to partner with manufacturers, services providers, and retailers to white label or rebrand the Intel AppUp Center. As much as Intel would like to disclose what store-fronts will be coming, we have to respect the relationships with our partners before we disclose a roadmap of these agreements. So stay tuned for more information on where you will find additional AppUp stores.

Show me the money

In the end, none of the above matters much if monetization of apps is not

realized. At the moment we are in beta, soon to release AppUp more broadly, so it’s too early to tell how well AppUp will help developers make money. We believe the potential to monetize applications is ever increasing with AppUp. We also believe there is a huge opportunity for developers to create and sell solutions that help other developers monetize and distribute applications. We are seeing this already with a few of our developers expanding beyond their core business by selling services and component solutions to AppUp developers. Perhaps the best option for developers is to consider the groundfloor opportunity for AppUp as it evolves beyond beta. Those who deliver the early apps and early core services and components will in all likelihood translate to earlier success for those developers.

Developer feedbackI am very much cognizant that my words on AppUp go so far. After all, I work for Intel and am part of the program. As the community manager, I’d rather have others explain how they see it. Here are thoughts from some of our developers in response to the question, “Why AppUp?” Feel free to add your own thoughts on “Why AppUp?” by adding your comment and or a link to your own YouTube* answer on Why AppUp?

The start of AppUp

AppUp needed to start somewhere. For Intel, netbooks represent a large existing market of computing devices that lacked apps verified to work well for a netbook. As of 2009 nearly 40 million netbooks had been sold, more than iPhones. And research predicts 150 million netbooks in the market by 2014. Within 8 months of the beta program we are well underway, with over 700 netbook apps in the AppUp Center. Additionally, the AppUp store allows clients to be installed using 1 account on up to 5 netbook devices. Thus, each of those netbooks has access to all apps purchased under that account.

In terms of development environments, we started with C/C++ and Windows* support for our SDK. Again, this was a starting place, as netbooks this provided the broadest solution for that community. The SDK for our beta program has been very lightweight and primarily focused on establishing app initialization and authentication to ensure the app was bought and properly licensed for use on the system running it.

Intel also recognized the need to allow our community to build on the value of the marketplace by creating services and components that will help developers build and sell their apps. With the beta program Intel created a developer catalog and marketplace within our community. This is already paying dividends for Intel and developers. To date, we’ve seen solutions that are enabling a broader set of apps to get into the store than the SDK alone enables.

Broadening developer environmentsBeyond C/C++ we have recently enabled Adobe’s AIR* runtime, and we are very soon to release a .NET SDK. As well, Silver-light and Java are near-term solutions for AppUp development.

However, these supported languages and runtimes are not the boundaries of app

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