Qualcomm unveils app store as part of expansion

SAN DIEGO:Qualcomm, one of the biggest players in the cell phone and chip industry, isclearly expanding efforts in the field of mobile OS and connectivity.

Qualcomm, which is based in San Diego, has brought out an applicationstore in an attempt to bring to the consumer its Brew applications andservices. Sources say that the first app store is to be managed by Web portalin Chinacalled Sina. The Brew Mobile Platform, Qualcomm’s mobile operating system whichwill provide smart phone functionality to a wide range of devices.

The application store is open market and will provideconsumers in Chinathe possibility of getting their hands on a full range of paid and freecontent, apps and services which will be available for download.

Sources at the company say that they are enthusiastic aboutworking with the Chinese web portal Sina, especially because of their abilityto bring in new relationships with the local developer community, which isexpected to lead to the development of mobile content that will be sociallyrelevant for the market in China.Qualcomm is keen on simultaneous inputs from developers around the world tomake use of the market potential of the region. 

Qualcomm also said that its Brew MP is continuing to garnerinterest from many new companies who are keen to partner in its 3Pre program.The 3Pre program is the arena where software providers work with Qualcomm tooptimize, pre-integrate and distribute key software components with the Brew MPoperating system. This program has more than 25 companies participating andmany more who are just joining. These new entrants include Access, BluestreakTechnology, Cequint, Funambol, Jibe Mobile, PixSense and UIEvolution.

In other Qualcomm developments, it was announced that fivecompanies have started developing products based on Qualcomm’s Gobi application programming interface (API), which is amobile broadband technology. The companies - Huawei, Novatel, Option, SierraWireless and ZTE are now developing mobile connectivity products like embeddedmodules and USB modems using the latest Gobi-enabled chipsets.