It’s official – there are over 2000 applications (not including the multitude of patches and tweaks) available to US Pre and Pre Plus owners, and just under that number for Pixi owners. How’s that possible, you ask, when the App Catalog only reports about 1600 available apps?
Here’s how it works: Palm has a unique application distribution program that allows developers to distribute their apps in three different ways – The on-device App Catalog, the web-only feed, and the beta feed. Combine that with the multitude of applications available from third party repositories such as the PreCentral homebrew gallery, and the options quickly balloon to over 2,000.
Here’s how it breaks down: as of this writing, the official on-device App Catalog has 1623 apps (counting all apps in all regions), Web Distribution has 145 apps, Beta distribution has 61 apps, and the homebrew gallery has 443. Using my trusty calculator, I come to 2,272 available applications after adding those four numbers together. While these distribution methods seem somewhat fragmented, you can access all of them from programs like Preware and from galleries such as PreCentral’s very own App Gallery.
Sure, 2000 apps is a drop in the bucket for companies who pull 5,000 applications out of their App Store in one fell swoop based on what are arbitrary double standards, but it represents solid momentum for Palm who has added over 600 applications in the last 2 months.
And hang in there, international webOS users. We have heard your frustrations about not having access to everything we do here in the States, but remember: Paid apps should be available everywhere the Pre is sold sometime next month.
