70 million opportunities and growing

To date 70 million netbooks powered by the Intel Atom processor have been sold. For developers, this provides a new and rare opportunity to create netbook-specific applications or port existing apps to a very large, almost captive audience that wants them for their devices.

If you think this sounds like a lot of work, or have reservations about the wisdom of going down this road, consider the support designed to help you get there. The Intel AppUpSM center, is a digital store front which offers a raft of tools and services to get you going and also helps deliver your apps to a hungry audience.

By signing up to the programme you'll benefit from a software developer's toolkit, easy deployment and validation, a developer catalogue to buy and sell application components, applications labs, and access to a vibrant online community. And when you do get to the point of selling your app, you'll receive up to 70 per cent of the revenue on each sale.

Something else of interest is that Intel has just tied up retail partnerships with Dixons in the UK and Best Buy in the US. This means that the Intel AppUp center will be pre-installed on selected netbooks, including Advent, Dixon's own brand, giving owners immediate access to your application on the store. Asus, the hardware manufacturer that produced the first ever netbook is also in on the deal, with its netbooks set to include the AppUp center software pre-installed.

The Intel AppUp developer program is growing all the time to support different technologies and currently supports Windows and Moblin, with MeeGo platform support just around the corner. The current Moblin SDK for the programme is MeeGo ready and is upward compatible for Moblin and MeeGo. All netbooks based on the Intel Atom processor are supported.

There are several features designed to speed you on your way to getting apps in the AppUp center. A guide describes the requirements and steps you must take to validate your applications, as well as successfully publish them. How-to documents also provide step-by-step instructions on many tasks, blogs provide a portal into what your peers are saying, there are forums in which you can learn and exchange information and a reputation building programme helps you understand how successful your efforts are.

There are also guidelines on game content but they are liberal and provide more than enough room for developers to create compelling games. This could be a great chance to try something new: the risk is low, the tools and support are free, and you use the skills you already have. Getting in at the start is the key, as any iPhone developer will tell you, before the market is flooded with apps far less superior to your own!

You can learn more about the Intel AppUp developer program at the official website.