Dixons to launch co-branded app store

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Dixons is collaborating with Intel to bring the chipmaker's applications store to customers in the UK.

Branded as the Currys PC World App Store, the offering will introduce Intel's AppUp store front for netbook applications, first as a downloadable option and later as a built in option on Dixons' branded Advent computers.

“Pretty key for us is how we bring life to technology [and] AppUp is crucial to this, be it a netbook or be it a laptop,” said Gary Hearns, senior category manager of content at Dixons, during a panel discussion at IDF 2010.

The apps will have a consumer centric feel but Peter Biddle, head of AppUp products and services at Intel, claimed business apps were a possible direction for the future.

“We are consumer centric to be very clear,” he said. “Some of the clearest needs are on consumer clamshell devices... but if you look at a lot of those apps, you can find a distinct number are productivity apps as well... so we certainly see that as a potential future.”

The panel admitted apps were currently a very US centric offering, but Hearns said the UK and Europe would be quick to adopt.

He said: “The UK and European customers will adopt very easily to small things [such as] changing from dollars to UK sterling and changing the language so it is not Americanised and is actual, genuine English.”

“The key is to build a strong develop community in the UK... from the development community out there and make a success of it [by] getting close to the customer.”

The download launch is set for 1 November, with the built in offerings coming sometime after Christmas. After these launches, Dixons will decide whether to build it in to any more devices, added Hearns.

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