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Palm’s Mojo Software Development Kit is now available to application developers. The SDK can be downloaded by any developer with a valid e-mail address at developer.palm.com.
The App Catalog submission process will be open to all developers in the fall, according to a July 16 post on the Palm blog. This is good news for both Palm and Pre smartphone users. The Palm App Catalogue currently has less than 50 applications on offer – a far cry from the 60,000-plus in Apple’s App Store.
While the Palm Pre has been well received, and draws comparisons to the iPhone, critics are quick to point out that a good device is no longer enough, and consumers now expect an extensive selection of complementary applications. Google, Microsoft, Research In Motion, Nokia and now also Symbian are hurrying to follow Apple’s model for success.
A beta App Catalog has been available since the debut of the Pre, on June 6, and according to Palm, thousands of developers have participated in its Mojo SDK early access program, which has slowly grown the beta App Cat from its initial 18 offerings.
On June 24 – with 30 available applications – the App Catalogue passed 1 million downloads. Data firm Medialets proclaimed it a speedy arrival, and – comparing Palm’s experience to Apple’s, in building toward that first 1 million downloads – estimated that the average Palm Pre user had downloaded 26 times the number apps that iPhone users had.
Nonetheless, two months earlier, the Apple App Store had zipped past its 1 billionth download.
On the Palm blog, Jon Zilber writes that developers interested in exploring the Palm webOS and Mojo SDK might be interested in a webOShelp meetup at Palm’s Sunnyvale headquarters on July 28 and preDevCamp, a network of Mojo developers meeting in various cities, on Aug. 8.