It seems that Nintendo still has a few surprises up its sleeve with the new Wii U console set to launch next year. The Daily is reporting that Nintendo has been developing an app store for the next generation gaming console. The current Wii console sports the Wii Shop Channel, which allows users to download games – including all their favorites from past Nintendo consoles – and a few other app-like channels and utilities, like Netflix, this would be an honest-to-goodness app store. Rumored apps include MLB.TV (which is coming to Microsoft’s Xbox 360 this Spring). Many of these apps will also run on the Wii U’s tablet-like controller, which sports a 6.2-inch screen, a camera, microphone, gyroscope, and accelerometer.

The Wii U, announced in April and unveiled at this year’s E3 game conference, continues Nintendo’s focus on innovation in the way games are played. Nintendo’s first Wii console, which launched in late 2006, constituted a significant shift in the so-called console wars. Before the Wii, Nintendo had been engaged in a game of one-upsmanship with Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s Playstation 2, both of which sported comparable technical specs and a game library more geared toward older, more hard-core gamers. With the Wii Nintendo altered its entire strategy: instead of perpetuating the graphics and processing arms race with Sony and Microsoft, they chose to pursue a more unique and intuitive control system, targeted at the casual gamer market that the Xbox and Playstation had all but ignored.

The strategy worked well. The Wii enjoys a significant lead over the competition in global market share (though Microsoft is top dog in the US). What’s more, the Wii brought motion control to the world of gaming, as Microsoft and Sony have since developed their own unique versions of the concept (Xbox Kinect and Playstation Move, respectively).

The Wii U is set to launch sometime in 2012, and is expected to be HD compatible (like the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, but unlike the current Wii). Many details are still unknown – pricing for the console, pricing for the app store, and a more specific release date chief among them. Whenever it launches, though, the Wii U looks to be an exciting addition to the gaming world. Check out the console’s E3 trailer below, and let us know what you think in the comments.

[Source: The Daily]