Sony confirmed its plans to launch an app store for the Playstation Portable. This is not the first sign of the app store model being applied beyond mobile phones. The store is said to support more than games:

Sony’s been working very hard to find our position in that and bring top-end gaming to not just the consumers who were there for the launch of PSP, but extending to an audience that is changing how it consumes entertainment and applications.

Their creations will then be sold via a specially-branded, separate area of the PlayStation Store open to the PSP and its upcoming successor the PSPgo.

We’re introducing new initiatives for the PSP which take it beyond traditional gaming, but still includes elements from gaming, and also includes new developers.

Over 50 studios around the world are already hard at work making these new kinds of games and applications – many more are on the cusp of signing up.

(Sony Computer Entertainment Europe’s head of developer relations, via develop-online.net)

Since its launch, the PSP has been sold over 50 million times. The store will go live together with the new PSPgo in October this year. We’ll update when more details are announced.