Justine Pratt from Creative Algorithms has answered some questions for PDA-247 regarding webOS and Creative Algorithms’ potential development for this platform.
1/ What was your initial impression of webOS and the Palm Pre hardware?
The hardware looks great and seems to address all the features the iPhone is missing (and people have been complaining about), so they did a good job assessing their competition.
I have a lot of questions about the webOS. I want to know how the web tools (JS/HTML/CSS) are managed locally, since the apps won’t really be web apps, but run on device (an assumption). My first impression was that they made the decision to go with a web-type interface when the web app discussion was hot–I hope that webOS turns out to be more than a glorified web app engine. I was also pleasantly surprised that they came up with a whole new slant to their new OS, which could be a game changer once we know more.
2/ Do you have plans to develop for this platform, and can we expect to see some of your existing titles ported over?
Time is the scarcest resource, so that will play a large part on WHEN we can support the new platform. We have many from which to choose: iPhone, Android, RIM, WM, Symbian, and now webOS. Now that the new platform will require complete rewrites, we’ll have to consider where our limited time is best spent and which OS has the most return on the investment. We would like to support the new webOS, but if the Pre doesn’t have the market share, ‘porting to it will not necessarily be at the top of the list. However, that said, we already have ‘ported Date Wheel (http://datewheel.net) to the web (in JS/HTML/CSS), so as long as the code doesn’t need much modifying, Date Wheel on the Pre would make a lot of sense.
3/ In your opinion, is Palm back in the game?
Yes, they are back in the game for now, but unfortunately, while they were taking a time out, a whole slew of new players showed up. Plus they did not do a whole lot to keep their users and developers engaged while on hiatus, so unfortunately, they are starting from scratch.
