Palm's webOS Software Catalog Closing in on 1,000 Apps

Palm's webOS is the newest of the mobile operating systems, so it's not surprising that it has the smallest number of third-party applications. Still, that number has grown significantly in recent months.

At present, there are about 950 items in the official App Catalog, Palm's name for its on-device software store. Most of these apps have been approved fairly recently, so the catalog is likely to pass the 1,000 mark in the near future,

Apps Matter
Much of the success of the original Palm Pilot can be credited to the rich ecosystem of third-party software that quickly grew up around it, and so Palm, Inc. is well aware of the important role that developers play in the success and failure of any operating system. That's why it has been actively courting developers for its new webOS.

Still, the company has been somewhat slow is getting developers the tools they need. For example, the Palm Pre, the first webOS-powered smartphone, had been on the market for months before the App Catalog allowed developers to charge for this products.

And even now the App Catalog is still a beta.

Heavy Competition
Although the number of webOS applications is growing, it is still dwarfed by its competitors who have been around longer.

All of the other mobile platforms have far more third-party software, even Google's Android OS, which almost as new as the webOS.

Source: My Pre