Will developers embrace webOS? Not yet…

10 February 2009 by Shaun 2 Comments

predial Over the past week, we have been running a series of short interviews with long-time Palm OS software developers and the results have been quite surprising. Here are some examples of the answers that came back to the question- “Do you have plans to develop for this platform…?”

“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…”

“We definitely are keeping an eye on what happens here. In order to invest much time in developing for the device, the adoption rate has to be high enough to make it attractive. We also want to know, from a 3rd party ISV point of view…”

“Making a business decision to throw development dollars behind a platform requires more info than they’ve offered so far…”

“So there will definitely be a lot of stuff upcoming for the webOS from Tamoggemon’s…”

“I’m watching Web OS development news closely though and taking another look at things in another five or six months…”

“We shall not port any of our titles to WebOS. In fact they can’t be ported – we would have to develop them from scratch. To be fair, I can imagine less risky ways how to earn money…”

So, there you have it. Looking at the list of answers above, there appear to be two general opinions; on the one hand it makes sense to wait and see how many devices are sold, but on the other it could be a case of simply saying no at this time and maybe changing the strategy later on.

Many of us got excited when webOS was announced, and Palm made a point of explaining how easy it was to develop for. Palm did not, however, offer enough information for developers to make an informed decision. People like me, who can barely program a DVD player, thought that I would suddenly see 1000’s of old (and new) Palm applications on the Pre, but it looks as though this could take a long time, and maybe never happen.

Third party software will be key to the success of webOS, but it is possible that many of our old favourites will not make the transition. We could see many new developers appear or we could see a stunted market- Palm needs to make some careful decisions over the next month or so and it needs to change the way it lets developers develop for this new operating system. Fair revenue commissions and compliance with standards will be the first two to look at.

Here are the interviews, in case you missed any of them-

Ilium Software (link)

Natara Software (link)

Creative Algorithms (link)

Resco (link)

iambic (link)

LoftCat (link)

Tamoggemon (link)

2 Comments »

Edward Green said:

I think part of the issue is what will the WebOS do out of the box. A lot of the smaller classical Palm OS apps are not found on more web connected platforms. Others patch holes in the OS.

With a good data connection and the meaty CPU using web-apps is going to me more of a reality on the Pre than it is even on the iPhone. Especially with copy and paste functionality.

The apps that will be important for me will be from people like Dataviz, Adobe (Acrobat & Flash), Tom Tom, and of course Olive Tree (I need my NRSV).

# 10 February 2009 at 11:38 am

James M. said:

I don’t blame the developers for taking a “wait-and-see” approach. Let’s be fair, there are plenty of early adopters who are out for the coolest-looking device, but don’t actually install many third-party applications. Look at BlackBerry: The platform pre-Bold was actually pretty primitive. But people bought it because of the “corporate big-shot” halo and as the Pearl and Curve made the hardware more attractive. Only in the last 6-9 months have their hardware and software become truly compelling “total packages”. And they STILL have an awful third-party ecosystem.
iPhone didn’t have third party apps for a year, and look how they dominated the market right out of the gate!
Nowadays, most platforms come with all the fundamentals out of the box (e-mail, PIM, media player, etc.). These basics cover most of what buyers will ever use or care about. The Pre with webOS is no exception. The hardware and software are sexy as hell, and Synergy could be a really solid and compelling feature for non-tech-heads that differentiates the platform.
As much as those of us surfing these sites and boards want to bring the success of a platform down to third-party software, that’s what sustains a system over the long-term, not what takes a system off the ground with the general public.
I think Palm has a great shot. I don’t think it’s a sure thing by a long shot, but I realize that my desires really don’t reflect most of the people out there buying smartphones to show off and just make their lives moderately easier.

# 11 February 2009 at 2:19 am