The fact the Palm has taken a radical turn, redesigned their mobile platform around access to the web and development around web technologies, and is releasing a new device based on it in the first half of this year are all really non-news items for me. What’s going to be the deciding point is what happens when us developers get to see the Mojo SDK that goes along with the WebOS platform.
The message so far coming out of Palm is on target in that regard. They need to return to the kind of innovation and energy that went along with the initial Palm Pilot devices. The big deal there was that they had a relatively simple platform that encouraged developers to experiment, and at the time they were the only real game in town for someone who wanted to pick up a device off the shelf and be able to program for it. Basing the design of the OS around web interfaces and attempting to allow developers to use the same technologies for native apps as they’ve been using on the web, I like that actually. Just a few days ago I was fooling around with hooking into native services on Android from within a browser interface, and it provides a really powerful system for getting stuff together quickly with quite a bit of flexibility.
So overall, I got to say, my curiosity is somewhat piqued. I don’t think we have enough info at all yet to make any decisions. But for the first time in oh-so-long, I’m happy about what I’m hearing.
Pingback: WebOS, Palm Pre and Enterprise Mobility | m|strat
Pingback: MobHappy » Blog Archive » CES: The Palm Pre, 24 Hours Later
To me, it sounds like Palm’s main goal in moving to the WebOS was providing a platform for simple app development. Them using web standards gives the appearance that “If you can make a widget, you can make an app!”
If anything, I’m worried that Mojo won’t let you go deep enough into WebOS, like directly accessing hardware.
So exciting to see Palm is moving forward.
Can’t wait to their webOS.