Qualcomm Takes Another Jab At Nvidia – Announces New Game Pack App Store
If you own an Android device, you should already be familiar with something that’s we’ve been seeing a lot in Android – app exclusives. With the release of the Xperia Play, we’ve seen certain apps that are supposedly optimized for and can only be found on that specific device. Nvidia may have started off the trend when they launched their Tegra Zone app store and even Amazon has jumped on the bandwagon with their own AppStore featuring game exclusives like (the incredibly fun) Hero Princess. If you thought you may have seen the last of app fragmentation taking the Android world by storm, think again.
Qualcomm has announced that they will be diving into the Android gaming market by releasing their own Snapdragon Game Pack which essentially is an app store catered to/around devices featuring Qualcomm’s mobile chipsets and their powerful new Adreno GPU’s. They already have a few big name developers on board and look to feature over 100 games from companies like Glu, Gameloft, Namco, Polarbit and many more.
It’s no secret that Qualcomm has been on the offensive when it comes to rival Nvidia and their Tegra line of dual-core processors (see Qualcomm’s Youtube channel) and this is just another way for them to stick it to Nvidia. Qualcomm has been late to the dual-core scene and it looks like they’re trying extra hard to make themselves the mobile platform of choice for publishers in the future. Whether or not this new app store will become a success remains to be seen but it appears we have a new factor involved in making our next smartphone purchase with app exclusives possibly playing a roll in that decision.
[Via Reuters]