Palm Pre News: Catalog Accepting Apps, Free Concerts @ The Grove

By Contributor Wireless and Mobile News on August 18, 2009 1:24 PM

There are two marketplaces open for the Palm Pre this week, a sensory try-out experience and free concerts at the Grove in Los Angeles, and developers can start submitting their apps.

For those visiting Los Angeles, the Palm Pre Experience is open at the Grove near the original Farmer's Market. Visitors will have a hands-on experience with the Palm Pre, a chance to win prizes, and weekly free concerts. (Michelle Branch and American Idol contestant Jason Castro take the stage this Wednesday evening, followed by Gavin Rossdale next Wednesday.)

Palm Pre developers who want to sell Palm webOS apps can start submitting them for consideration in the Palm App Catalog e-commerce beta program, which will begin in mid-September.

Developers selected to participate in the beta program will have the opportunity to have their applications, both free and paid, featured in the Palm App Catalog ahead of the next wave, and to be among the first to be paid for purchases of their Palm webOS applications.

All developers can submit both free and paid applications for evaluation by Palm. Details of the program are the following:

You can charge a one-time fee for the download of your application.
Initially, the user base for e-commerce will be limited to the United States.
Developers will receive 70 percent of revenues generated through application sales (less applicable sales taxes).
webOS users will pay for their application purchases using credit cards and will download apps directly to their webOS device.

Palm will accept apps into the beta test program based on the following criteria:

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.