Palm lets loose the Pre SDK: how it can still beat the iPhone at its own game
The Palm Pre has just gotten an infusion of awesome: “after a successful early access program,” Palm is making the Mojo Software Development Kit available to all interested app developers. This sure is going to stir some excitement among the development community as well as Pre’s existing (and potential) users.
It’s all about the ecosystem
As Apple’s App Store has demonstrated, boy does the ecosystem matter! iPhone/iPod Touch apps now serve as conversation starters for complete strangers! Users provide valuable feedback to app developers, who work hard to improve their apps and delight users. And that is power: for developers, for Apple, and for users. Now that its Mojo SDK is widely available, Palm is giving Pre developers the ability to empower users of the device, much in the same way Apple has done. In reality, Palm may have several advantages over Apple in this space. One advantage is already being capitalized on by Palm: the company is taking the community-oriented approach, having already created forums for its developers and invited them to share information and insights about developing with the SDK. This is in high contrast to the tight-lipped stance Apple initially took, prohibiting developers from discussing the act of coding using the SDK. In this regard, developing for the Pre should be a much more collaborative processes than it was for the iPhone/iPod Touch. Once new applications can be submitted to the App Catalog (this fall), Palm can further play on its greater degree of “openness” by having a less stringent (read: moronic) application submission process. For Apple, approving submitted applications is a dark spot in the App Store’s otherwise very bright reputation. Palm can gain developer’s respect (as well as attract new developers) by being open about the exact criteria to have an app approved.
The stats
By last count, Apple’s App Store has 38,075 active apps for sale. While there aren’t any concrete numbers regarding the amount of apps available for the Pre, suffice to say it’s not many: at launch, the SDK was available only to a handful developers (although we’ve received word that that number is actually in the “thousands”). While Palm developers have some catching up to do with Apple when it comes to the breadth of available apps for the Pre, it doesn’t necessarily need to match Apple in the number of apps available. How many fart apps do your really need in a mobile app store? I’d say we can do without those, and so can the Pre.
On top of that, I believe that simple business scenarios will push developers to flock to the Pre. First of all, the Pre is the closest competitor to Apple’s iPhone juggernaut by a long shot. No other smartphone comes even close. Having said that, if there is a market that needs to be served in the Pre’s App Catalog, simple laws of supply and demand dictate that developers (or someone else) will take advantage of it. This is especially true once the Pre is made available to a broader market on Verizon.
Submission process
Finally, Palm has announced that the submission process for its App Catalog will be opened to all developers beginning this fall. Some have taken issue with this. For example, John Paczkowski of the Wall Street Journal thinks that this will be to Palm’s detriment:
“It doesn’t seem wise to delay the submissions process when the lack of SDK-access has already hampered development of applications for the device. After all, Palm (PALM) has a lot of catching up to do if it hopes to offer even a decent alternative to Apple’s (AAPL) iTunes App Store, which currently boasts around 65,000 applications, the work of some 100,000 developers. The SDK and associated documentation can be downloaded immediately from a new developer portal – Palm webOSdev – at developer.palm.com by any interested developer with a valid email address.”
I disagree on multiple accounts. First, if Palm says it will be ready in the fall, it has a good reason to do so – and not because it’s deliberately trying to be “unwise.” The real reason for the fall time frame is because certain aspects of the system simply aren’t ready; certain parts need to be thought-through, engineered, tested, etc. Coming in as the underdog, Palm can’t afford to make mistakes here: I would rather see Palm handle third-party apps right the first time around and take its time getting there, than to rush through and make a bunch of mistakes that will dissatisfy users and developers upon launch. Second, Palm was late to the multi-touch game to begin with. It took Apple over a year to get its SDK + App Store in place and rolling. If Palm delivers its App Catalog + approval process this fall as promised, it would cut Apple’s time to market in half. That’s pretty good in my book.
The Mojo Software Development Kit is available for download to all interested app developers immediately, along with associated documentation, and access to the aforementioned Mojo developer forums. Palm is also working with the community to put DevCamps and other community-oriented events in place.
Posted in Business, Decisions, Featured, Palm, Pre
20. July 2009 at 11:31 am :
TechNest Report – Palm lets loose the Pre SDK: how it can still beat the iPhone at its own game http://ow.ly/15IgZ3
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
20. July 2009 at 5:13 pm :
Interested to see how they will handle app screening and restrictions in the Pre app store. I know Apple has been, and continues to be, mysteriously conservative. If the pre offers devs the freedom they want without rooting/jailbreaking they Pre would have a big advantage, especially when it comes to interface customization. I feel like the iPhone lacks the ability to be unique. It seems everyone has an iPhone and the only thing that distinguishes mine is my choice of apps. I believe you discussed this once on the podcast talking about appealing to the Japanese market.
21. July 2009 at 4:48 pm :
I agree. I think it will be very interesting to see how Palm handles the Pre App Catalog screening/approval process for apps. I don't know if they have app-building guidelines that restrict the change/customization of the interface. I like the colors of the iPhone interface. I (personally) wouldn't want to have it any other way. But I know there are people who skin the living S%^it out of any device they own. I don't think the mainstream user thinks or cares about that, though. They just want it to work
21. July 2009 at 5:01 pm :
I think it would be interesting to see some solid demographics on iPhone users. I haven't found any. I mean the $599 cool new gadget crowd can't possibly still be the dominant user. Take a trip down to Town Center and count how many 14 year old girls you see rocking a 3GS, especially around Christmas time. Not that we should sacrifice reliability to the business user for freedom to the high school kids, but Apple/Palm is in it for the money, money is where your market is. Just a thought…
21. July 2009 at 5:17 pm :
It would be VERY interesting to look at the demographics of iPhone buyers. Should it be buyers or users? I think I can arrange the buyers part. I think that Apple could satisfy all users by giving developers the ability to write UI customization apps. They've been doing it left and right on the jailbreak, so we know it can't be that difficult to do. For those who don't want to customize, they don't have to. But for those who do, go ahead! That way, the business user (who apparently doesn't want pretty UI elements) doesn't suffer unncecessarily, and the high school kids can modify to their heart's content.
If you look at Blackberry, its target user is the business user. Blackberry doesn't really care about users being able to change UI elements, etc. That's not to say the business users are a boring species: they are far too often made out to be the boring people who want to see everything in black and white. Completely the opposite from what I've found: they like pretty stuff, but not for the sake of being pretty. They want functionality that looks good, whether it's UI or hardware design. Yet plenty of those 14 year old girls who we both have seen so many times run around TownCenter use Blackberrys, because (for some reason) they think it's cool to have one.
PS: not the iPhone nor Pre really lose much (resource-wise) when someone runs a different skin, do they? Is there a resource drain when/if the UI is modified?
21. July 2009 at 5:28 pm :
The cost of adding a skin, or even a fancy theme to your iPhone with something like Winterboard is not necessarily costly, maybe a MB or so in lost memory for the fancy graphic files. It becomes an issue when unrestricted theme repositories fill up with sloppy, unsupported code that takes advantage of more than its share of resources. Put it this way, if Apple developed or even just approved UI mods with adequate resource restrictions, the issues would be almost nonexistant.
21. July 2009 at 8:03 pm :
So they should do it! Or this might be one of those things that Apple just took a stance on and said, "no." Kind of like adding background processes to the iPhone (which I think they'll do eventually). They have to!
21. July 2009 at 8:03 pm :
In other news, looking forward to my HTC Fuze demo phone.
25. July 2009 at 8:03 pm :
Palm Let Loose the Pre SDK: how it can still beat the iPhone at its own game: | http://bit.ly/uwmSq | #palmpre #palm #pre
This comment was originally posted on Twitter