Palm Releases Mojo webOS SDKPalm Releases Mojo webOS SDK

Palm Pre users may soon find a lot more apps in the App Catalog. The company has made its Mojo software development kit available to all developers.

Prior to Thursday's announcement, the company had a limited, early access program that gave companies such as Pandora and Fandango the SDK for its webOS operating system. While the Pre has mainly received positive reviews, one criticism is that its over-the-air app store has fewer than 100 programs. By comparison, Apple's App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch is a juggernaut, with more than 65,000 apps. The Android Market boasts more than 5,000 programs.

Palm is taking a different approach to mobile app development than its rivals. Content creators will be able to make programs for webOS using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other standard Web technologies. The goal is to make it easy and quick for Web developers to create webOS apps even if they don't have much experience in the mobile space.

"The initial response to Palm webOS apps -- from both developers and customers -- has been enthusiastic," Palm said in a blog post. "Even in its initial beta stage, over 1.8 million apps have been downloaded from the beta App Catalog since Palm Pre was released less than six weeks ago."

The move comes as applications are playing an increasingly important role in the mobile market. Users have been able to add third-party programs for years from providers such as Handango, but mobile apps really came to the forefront with the launch of Apple's App Store a year ago. Since then, Nokia, Google, Microsoft, Research In Motion, Vodafone, and other major players have introduced ways for users to browse, buy, download and install apps on their handsets.

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