Palm's Oprah Moment

By MG Siegler

I’m here in San Francisco for a meeting Palm (PALM) has called to give its newest employees, Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer, who both came over from Mozilla, a chance to talk a bit about the state of the webOS platform.

The two, along with Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein and some other executives spoke at length about the hardware, the platform, and the plan going forward. The message was pretty clear: Web development is the future, and openness is the way. They also made a few big announcements.

The first is that they’re allowing developers to fully distribute their apps via the web. What this means is that developers can simply submit their apps to Palm, and Palm will return to them a URL that they can then blog, tweet, do whatever they want to share it. When a person then clicks on that URL they can easily install the app, bypassing any kind of store. And while Palm is providing the URL, it is not going to be reviewing the apps in any way — a clear dig at Apple’s approval process.

Palm did note that they will still offer their App Catalog (their app store) for developers who want that too. Presumably, any app developer who wants to charge for their app will still have to go through the store. And for those developers, Palm will charge $50 for the apps to go into the Catalog.

The next announcement is that Palm is waiving the $99 yearly fee it normally charges to developers to make webOS apps if those apps are going to be open source. Galbraith and Almaer with their Mozilla backgrounds are big proponents of open source, as are many that were in the audience tonight, so this move drew cheers.

On top of that, Palm is opening up all of its analytical data to any developer who wants to access it. Again, this is different from Apple which keeps much of the analytical data for itself, and shares little.

And finally, in an effort to spur development for the platform, Palm announced that it is giving to every developer in the audience a free Pre, and its new wireless charger. On top of these, everyone will get a month free of Sprint service to use the device and tinker with developing for it. “Just hack on it,” Galbraith said.

So now Palm has had its “Oprah moment,” just as Google did a few months ago at Google I/O where they gave a G2 to everyone in the audience. That was a much bigger audience, but the gesture is still a good one from Palm. Here’s the takeaway from tonight: Galbraith and Almaer are the new sheriffs in town and they want to open things up an get you developing for webOS.

Original post

Comments

[drbob:]

Too little, too late...Palm is dead without Verizon...And Verizon and 'open' don't mix. Plus, Verizon just announced an Android deal.

Oct 06 09:28 AM

[CGP:]

Well, it might come down to how long PALM can keep the lights on, giving WebOS a chance to develop.

Interesting that VZ is taking on Android - is it the price for VZ or that GOOG will let them do a lockdown? At first blush it seems GOOG is dabbling on the dark side of their open initiative.

I was hoping to see, maybe buy a WebOS product on VZ LTE but the latest news puts a new spin on my plans.

Oct 06 11:19 AM

[spald_fr:]

Palm reminds me of the QuattroPro spreadsheet software. Originally the best of the three main programs. And then it was gone.

Oct 06 03:19 PM

[Kris Tuttle:]

Sounds fairly bold and encouraging. Certainly more open and an interesting choice versus Apple. But I wonder how the open/closed comparison will look between WebOS and Android in Q4.

Oct 06 03:57 PM

[robert.b.fe...:]

With Sprint (S) offering Wimax in more locations all the time (four more cities last week) and beefing up their 4G high speed networks I wouldn't count either Sprint or Palm out. In fact I'm considering adding to my stake in Sprint while it remains below $5. They just concluded terms on two new government contracts and are negotiating more.

Oct 06 04:19 PM

[Commies are...:]

Palm pissed me off when they refused to resolve my issue with my lifedrive that could not turn off. This thing just randomly turned on and there was no hard switch. Their support (half way around the world) was absolutely condescending and anything but helpful. I would never ever ever ever buy anything from Palm and would enjoy shorting them to zero.

Oct 06 10:12 PM

[Aryamehr:]

Look, the truth of the matter is you either hate Palm because it truly challenges the iPhone and has you scared stiff that it might have a chance of displacing the iPhone if it is allowed to evolve and mutate or you love it because it is truly an a step ahead of the iPhone. Its that plain and simple. If you are Short Palm you must also despise the stock so much that you would do anything to cripple its chances because it has caused you nothing but grief. While Cramer and cronies spin their stories on why you should bet against Palm the stock continues to go North.

Oct 07 01:50 AM

[Paul Harper:]

love the way that you managed to contradict yourself in 132 characters ... good going. We are avidly awaiting your next shaft of light into technology.


On Oct 06 09:28 AM drbob wrote:

> Too little, too late...Palm is dead without Verizon...And Verizon
> and 'open' don't mix. Plus, Verizon just announced an Android deal.

Oct 07 02:15 PM

[Paul Harper:]

who has released or will be releasing a commerciallyy viable WiMAX handset that can also roam across CDMA & GSM networks ...

WiMAX is a RADIUS based authentication system, so getting it to talk to SIM (GSM) or chip (CDMA) is a bit of a challenge, we frigged something with Intel on this early 2008, but field trials have been a little different.


On Oct 06 04:19 PM robert.b.ferguson wrote:

> With Sprint (seekingalpha.com/symbol/s) offering Wimax in
> more locations all the time (four more cities last week) and beefing
> up their 4G high speed networks I wouldn't count either Sprint or
> Palm out. In fact I'm considering adding to my stake in Sprint while
> it remains below $5. They just concluded terms on two new government
> contracts and are negotiating more.

Oct 07 02:18 PM