Apple is rumoured to be set to make a wider push into the handheld games market by launching a premium games section as part of its App Store. The move could increase competition between Apple devices and dedicated portable games consoles such as the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP. The new app section will sell games for around US$20 and act as a platform for many of the larger games publishers, such as EA and Gameloft, claims gaming news site PocketGamer.biz. The report notes that the initiative will not support the thousands of smaller developers currently selling titles on the main App Store.

The App Store launched last June, coinciding with the release of the iPhone 3G. Earlier this month Apple said the store had registered 500 million downloads, from a selection of 15,000 apps, nearly 2,000 of which are games. The majority of downloads were related to games and entertainment, while business applications also performed well. According to a recent ComScore report, downloads of mobile games in general grew 17 percent last year thanks to the increased graphics capabilities of smartphones like Apple’s iPhone. The report said 8.5 million people, or 3.8 percent of mobile subscribers, have downloaded a game to their handset. In a separate development, Bloomberg reports today that Adobe and Apple are still attempting to overcome the technical challenges of bringing Adobe’s Flash technology to the iPhone and have not pulled the plug on potential collaboration.