Intel has signed up retailer Croma to deploy its AppUp Center, an applications marketplace for Netbooks. Intel is white labelling the app store, called Croma Apps. It features over 1000 free and paid applications for Intel Atom processor-based netbooks, covering entertainment, social networking, gaming and productivity. Croma intends to pre-install the client on all Intel Atom processor-based Croma netbooks and pen drives retailed at their stores; The App store only supports Windows machines, and according to its FAQ section, Paid software applications downloaded from the Intel AppUp Center for the first time provide a 24-hour window to use the software prior to charging a users account, so they can be cancelled. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed (in case you know, please do leave a comment), but we're assuming that this applies to Netbooks that are branded as Croma, and not all netbooks available at Croma stores. Otherwise, it's strange that Intel should deal with a retailer for this, rather than a netbook manufacturer. As a consumer, given how crunched Netbooks are for processing power, I wouldn't appreciate a pre-installed App store, especially one that launches every time I boot. I hope there's an uninstall option.
