With the launch of the SDK, Palm has also launched the WebOS Developer Portal, and the Pre Virtual Device Lab. In the portal, developers can acquire the SDK, read reference guides, help docs, and associated FAQs, or post in the developer forums and blogs. With the Virtual Device Lab, developers can load their app onto a virtual Pre for remote testing.One of the major things that makes the SDK so great is the fact that it uses common programming language that most programmers are familiar with. HTML and JavaScript are pretty basic stuff and with a little practice and help from the API it wouldn’t be too hard for web programmers to get used to the Palm Pre programming environment.
The initial response to Palm webOS apps from both developers and customers has been enthusiastic. In the initial beta stage, over 1.8 million apps were downloaded from the beta App Catalog. Palm says thousands of developers participated in the Mojo SDK early access program since it began in early April.
There’s also a opportunity for Palm to better manage the type of content available. For example, will Palm filter submissions so that their catalogue doesn’t fill up with 30 different shades of iFart? Some sort of quality threshold would be an ideal way to distinguish the App Catalogue, but that would potentially hurt Palm’s profits - apps that appeal to the lowest common denominator can also sell very well. How brave will Palm be in the months to come?
