Palm starts taking submissions for paid apps
updated 11:20 am EDT, Tue August 18, 2009
Palm Takes Paid App Submit
Palm on Tuesday began accepting developer submisssions of paid apps to the Palm App Catalog. The move follows a month after the smartphone creator opened its SDK to all developers and will give developers a similar deal to what Apple has struck for its iPhone App Store or Microsoft for its Windows Marketplace for Mobile. While free apps are still an option, Palm will take only a 30 percent flat cut of the revenue from any paid app regardless of the number of copies sold.
The submissions are still part of a beta for commercial apps that starts in earnest in mid-September. A completed program should be in place by the fall, although apps developed now will support future webOS devices.
Adding paid apps is critical for Palm, which has had only a very limited range of software in the App Catalog due to the private beta nature of its Mojo SDK until last month. By contrast, Apple didn't formally launch its own store at all until four months after it offered a public beta iPhone SDK and had about 500 apps on launch versus Palm's 30. Access to third-party apps has been considered a core advantage of the iPhone and has conversely been a limiting factor for the Palm Pre.
