Valve's Steam service has become synonymous with gaming, allowing gamers to purchase digital copies of the hottest games on the market, get instant updates and patches for their games as they're released, and communicate with one another about said games.

Valve is in fact more well-known for Steam now than they are for their actual game development efforts, despite those efforts including revered games like Half-Life 2.

It appears Valve is aware of this, and is prepared to take Steam to the next level as a result, bringing it out of its cozy gaming confines, and into the vast, wide app world at large.

Beginning September 5, the Steam store will begin carrying approved non-gaming apps. While the company states that this is initially meant solely as a benefit for their existing 40 million users, they admit that the expansion may eventually attract more users to the service, namely non-gamers.

That's because Steam could provide a decided advantage over some other app stores, in that it can be used across a variety of platforms, including Windows, Mac, and Linux, and instant updates of programs purchased through the service can be performed.

While Steam hasn't announced any of the apps that will be made available through their service come September 5, they've stressed that only paid apps will be approved, at least initially. It's also possible they could rely on their Steam Greenlight service in the future to have the community help them choose suitable apps for sale, in addition to choosing which games to sell through the service.

Will this expansion of Steam's service be beneficial to gamers? Or is Valve simply looking to expand their market beyond the hardcore gaming crowd that makes up most of their existing customer base? Gives us your take on Steam's expansion in the comments.