14 DAY TRIAL // Sunnyvale-based mobile phone maker Palm has come a long way with its webOS mobile operating system since last year's Consumer Electronics Show, when it first unveiled the platform and the first handset to sport it, the Palm Pre. The smartphone was launched on the market in June 2009 and, along with it, the company also released its own application store for the webOS platform, namely the Palm App Catalog.
At launch, the software solutions portal included only a handful of applications (under 30), yet their number has increased steadily, and now it is nearing the 1,000 apps mark. At the end of the last year, the storefront was reportedly sporting around 950 titles, which means that in shouldn't be too long before the four digit number is reached, and CES might be the place where the milestone will be announced.
However, a long road lies ahead for Palm and its webOS platform. Rival application stores, including the Apple App Store or the Google Android Market, have long passed this number, and are heading rapidly for much more impressive figures. The App Store has already passed the 100,000 apps mark, and is expected to reach 150,000 in a short period of time, while the Android Market had 16,000 solutions available a couple of weeks ago, and should announce 20,000 in no time.
Even so, considering the beginnings of the Palm App Catalog, the increase is worth noticing. Palm made the Mojo SDK available publicly in late summer, and there’s also been a series of other barriers it had to pass, yet now the development of webOS applications seems to be gaining momentum. One of the main factors to contribute to the growth would be the support for enhanced graphics in the platform, but development of apps might also be boosted through the launch of new devices running under the platform, something that might happen soon if the rumors regarding Verizon's release of a webOS device pan out.