A subscription model would provide another revenue stream in addition to advertising and direct sales of applications hosted on Intel's AppUp store, said Peter Biddle, general manager of AppUp products and services at Intel.

AppUp, designed similar to Apple's App Store, hosts applications for netbooks and tablets running on Intel or x86 processors. Under the current revenue model, developers get a 70 percent cut on applications sold, and Intel and partners get the remaining 30 percent.

"The notion of bundled subscriptions that developers can opt into as well as individual subscriptions unique to their brand -- individual titles or multiple titles -- absolutely we're going to be supporting that in the future," Biddle said. "It's very high-priority for us."

Intel's AppUp store currently hosts more than 3,000 applications, which are mostly priced under US$10 or available free. The subscription model would work for bundled applications, Biddle said, providing the example of a bundle of casual games at a price of $5 to $10 a month. The subscription model would also work for rental software under which users get the latest versions, new features or additional capabilities on a consistent basis.

"Users understand the business model of renting versus buying and they've been doing it with movies, books and audio for years. It's not a big leap for them," Biddle said.