Palm CEO Says Its Smart Phone Pre Will Attract Developers
February 18 2009 - 8:37AM
Dow Jones News
Palm Inc. (PALM) said it has made developing applications for
its new Pre smart phone easy enough to attract a broad range of
developers, Chief Executive Ed Colligan said in an interview on the
sidelines of Mobile World Congress here Wednesday.
Colligan said all Web developers would be in a position to build
applications for the Pre, which is powered by a new operating
system called WebOS. There are about 10 million Web developers
worldwide.
In addition, Palm will be able to leverage a community of 30,000
developers who have worked on its previous PalmOS operating system
and with whom it has a long-standing relationship.
"We have made it a priority for the new system to be as easy as
possible to develop for," Colligan said.
As the number of operating systems for mobile phones grows
exponentially, competition for the best developers is growing
fierce. When Palm announced WebOS, analysts at CCS Insight
expressed concern that because the device would initially only be
available in the U.S. and exclusively from Sprint, They said Palm
would find it hard to draw developers who have the option of
focusing on larger opportunities with other platforms.
Colligan, however, said he's more concerned by controlling the
quality of the applications it will offer on the Pre, which is why
it plans to roll out an application store that will let it pick and
chose the best of the lot. It expects to unveil details of how the
store will work before the Pre hits the U.S. market.
Palm has previously said its new device would ship by the end of
the first half. It will also be available in Europe and
negotiations with operators there are underway, Colligan said.
Having an easy-to-access and well furnished-application store is
fast becoming an essential requirement for both phone makers and
operators. In Barcelona this week, Finnish handset giant Nokia
Corp. (NOK), software behemoth Microsoft (MSFT) and mobile operator
Orange all unveiled application stores that will make it easier for
consumers to buy new programs and services for their phones.
Apple (AAPL) is the first company to spot the potential of
application stores and that of the iPhone has been extraordinarily
successful. Apple said last month that a total of 15,000
applications are available on it and that downloads have hit 500
million in just six months.