The App Catalog has been live in various forms for a little over a year now, and Palm has continued to add both features and applications during that time it’s gone from a measly handful of offerings to a marketplace offering over 3,000 applications, including immersive 3D titles like NOVA and Need for Speed, and the inbuilt search algorithms and overall app discovery have improved considerably.

But even with these accomplishments, Palm’s online marketplace lags behind competing offerings – namely the Android Market and the App Store - in certain key areas and needs to rapidly add functionality to bring it up to par. We’ve caught a glimpse or two of where the App Catalog may be going, and here are three features we think Palm should be sure to implement in the next version.  What features would you like to see?

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That’s not to say that the Android Market isn’t growing quickly. It is. As our friends at Android Central pointed out (noting an insightful application store study done by Distimo), the Android Market is growing by more than 3000 apps a month, which equates to 15% of the total available apps. That’s cool, but we feel the need to clear our throats and say “Wait a minute…”

Here’s the deal: Palm’s webOS App Catalog hit 1000 apps on January 1, 2010. Since then 561 new apps have joined the catalog, a pace of 10.2 new apps per day. Or 310 new apps a month. Or 20% growth per month. Or more than 15%. If you’ll pardon the indulgence, “Ha ha.”

More analysis after the break!

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You asked for it, and Palm delivered: there is now a way to check out what apps are available for your webOS phone without suffering through the App Catalog. Palm has added a listing of the apps available in the App Catalog to their website where you can check out a screenshot of each app and get a quick summary. We should note that right now the listing is only of apps in the US App Catalog and only on Palm’s US website. We’d be surprised if international versions were not on the way, but like getting the Pre to Europe, it’ll likely take a little while.

In the meantime, we’d like a bit more than just a screenshot and summary: something like download sizes/numbers, review ratings, or even just the price. But it’s a start, and unlike the iPhone App Store and Android Market, the full listing of App Catalog apps is accessible regardless of platform (since you’re looking through your browser instead of the on-device app store or iTunes). The rusty gears in our minds are just beginning to turn at the possibilities that browser-based distribution could bring, most notably serving as a centralized repository of those open-source apps that Palm will soon be welcoming.

[via: PreThinking]

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If you’re a user of that other Linux-based smartphone operating system, then I hope you weren’t planning on making it look all webOSy. As it turns out, Palm’s legal team has taken an unkind view of the “Palm Pre Android Theme” and sent what amounts to a cease-and-desist letter to the developer. The primary objection is from the copyright standpoint, as Palm has trademarked both the images and the general user interface of webOS.

"While Palm appreciates that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, we are concerned that the use of the name “Palm Pre Android Theme” for your product is likely to cause people to erroneously assume that your application is sponsored, authorized or has been approved by Palm, or that you have, or your company has, a relationship with Palm. Creation of such consumer confusion would constitute an infringement of Palm’s well-established trademark rights."

The webOS theme for Android phones was offered free-of-charge on the Android Market. Palm’s letter cites a puzzling “potential for consumer confusion,” as if the users of the webOS theme will tout that their Android-powered device is indeed a Palm phone. Such a claim is, in this blogger’s unlawyerly opinion, utter hogwash, as it is dependent upon a user downloading and installing the theme from the Android Market (having already bought an Android phone) and then for whatever reason passing it off as actually being a Palm device.

Not so hogwash: Palm making the claim based on trademark. As followers of such theme-smackdown-hijinks of the past may know, a company has to take steps to defend their trademark rights or they risk losing them. A charitable reading of Palm’s letter would mean that Palm isn’t looking to squash the little guy, they’re looking to ensure they maintain their trademark rights if they need them later to fight bigger guys.

Palm has also targeted the BlackBerry theme with a takedown notice, though it does not appear that the same has been done for the iPhone. It’s likely that due to the non-sanctionable status of the iPhone theme (i.e. the iPhone must be jailbroken for any themes to be installed), Palm is not overly worried about the iPhone theme.  There was also TealOS for PalmOS users, by the way.

In the end we hope that all of these themes can be re-released in a form that doesn’t infringe on Palm’s trademarks yet is still ‘inspired’ by the webOS.  Because, as Palm noted, imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery.

[via: Engadget]

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