Palm's App Catalog Will Soon Include Paid Software

The Palm Pre's on-device software store currently only allows free apps, but that's about to change. Palm, Inc. has just begun a beta of its system to allow developers to charge for their software.

Games and other titles submitted during the beta are expected to start appearing in the App Catalog in mid-September. Palm says the e-commerce program will be open to all developers later this year.

Of course, some developers have already begun charging for their webOS apps, but the payment process isn't done through Palm. Instead, titles like MotionApps Classic are listed on the App Catalog as demos, and users need to go to the developer's website to purchase them. Palm's program will allow developers to sell their apps directly on the Catalog, with Palm getting a share of the proceeds.

Not Looking for Just Any App
Palm is clearly looking for the best applications available to be the first paid items in its software store, and has set out a series of guidelines:

• Apps should be useful and engaging to users.
• They need to have an appealing design and user interface aligned with Palm UI guidelines.
• They are written specifically for webOS and not delivered through the browser.
• They leverage webOS platform and device capabilities, for example, notifications, multitasking/background processing, location services, accelerometer.
• They have acceptable performance and response time on the device; apps with slow UI response or sluggish performance will be rejected. Applications that consume excessive power on the device will also be rejected.

More information on submitting software to Palm can be found on this company's web site.

Source: Palm