Palm gets its Mojo going

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 20 Jul 2009 at 17:27

Palm has thrown open the doors to its WebOS development kit, giving anybody the ability to create apps for the Pre.

The SDK, dubbed Mojo, and documentation has been released onto the Mojo forums and is freely available for anybody looking to get involved.

WebOS applications are built on JavaScript with extension APIs that grant access to the smartphone's innards, including contacts, calender and Bluetooth.

"The initial response to Palm webOS apps - from both developers and customers - has been enthusiastic," says Jon Zilber, Palm director of online communications.

"Thousands of developers have participated in the Mojo SDK early access program since it began in early April. 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."

Unfortunately, the Pre isn't slated for release in the UK until Christmas. Not that this really makes any difference as Palm's App store won't be open to the public until October.

As with Apple's wildly successful iTunes, Palm has confirmed it won't let anybody else distribute WebOS applications. That means Pre owners are currently stuck with applications developed by Palm partners, as they were given access to the SDK before the launch of the phone.