Palm Releases Mojo SDK for Pre
Following much consternation among developers waiting for a developer kit for the new Pre Web-based handheld device, Palm today released the SDK for its webOS platform.
The company said today that its Mojo Software Development Kit can be downloaded here. In a blog posting the company said early customers of the Pre, which shipped in early June, have downloaded 1.8 million applications from the beta of its App Catalog. But critics bemoan the rather slim pickings of about 30 applications.
"New applications are in the pipeline for the Palm App Catalog, and the App Catalog submission process will be opened to all developers beginning this fall," the company said in the blog posting.
The release of the Mojo SDK was a sticking point among developers, who were hoping to have it ready in advance of the Palm PreDevCamp, scheduled for August 8, as reported last month. "It was a big risk to the dev camp," said Dan Rumney, a global support manager with IBM, who is global organizer of the 85-city preDevCamp. "I can't think of any reason why the Pre Dev Camp won't happen now."
Palm's new webOS platform is based on Prototype, a JavaScript framework for building dynamic Web applications.
By releasing the SDK, the number of apps available to Pre customers should increase in the coming months, Rumney added. But it has a steep hill to climb to catch Apple's App Store, which has 25,000 apps, according to analysts.
Meanwhile developers and customers of the Pre will no longer synchronize with Apple's iTunes software. Apple has disabled that capability in the newest version released this week. "People are upset about it," said Rumney.