Comments on: Palm Announces New 'No Review' App Distribution Options
Updated: Welcome news for developers tonight: Palm has just concluded a gathering of developers and journalists to officially introduce their new Developer Relations heads to the community, and made two big announcements to boot. Firstly, they've announced a new app distribution model that does away with any Big Brother review process. Developers can now upload their applications directly to Palm, who will then return a URL which can be used to access applications directly from the Pre - as simple as that. These URLs can be reposted anyhwere, and Palm says that "public feeds of these URLs and other relevant application data (such as reviews and ratings) will also be made available to the community to help applications find their market".
The second piece of news is possibly even bigger: if developers choose to make their apps available as free open source, then the $99 annual fee for selling in the App Catalog will be waived. (A $50 one-time fee will still be charged for each app uploaded into the catalog.) To cap it all off, every developer in the audience was given a free Pre and Touchstone with a month's free service from Sprint. "Just hack on it," were reportedly Ben Galbraith's words.
Update: Palm have just made the announcement official, also revealing their innovative new auction process for promotional places within the App Catalog. Palm have also delved into more detail on the Developer Network Blog, and a promotional video has been put up here. We've reposted the press release, along with some of the more interesting quotes from the blog, after the jump.
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Only free apps?
"Presumably, any app developer who wants to charge for their app will still have to go through the store. And for those developers, Palm will charge $50 for the apps to go into the Catalog."
Tech Center Labs
RE: Only free apps?
I'm not sure how to read that. It seems to imply "sales transaction" via the unique URL from distribution on the web that is not part of the App Catalog (which you then pay $50 to be in).
Even if it was only for "free" apps, I wonder if it's possible/allowable to have a "free" app to download that charges you (outside of Palm's site) to register or some other subscription once you use it?
If either/both of the above are true, that's better than I was initially reading into it.
RE: Only free apps?
There may BE ambiguity...but there should NOT be.
Palm needs, once again, to clarify.
RE: Only free apps?
* If you wish to develop for webOS, you must pay a $99 yearly fee.
* But if you use code that is open-sourced, Palm will waive that $99 fee.
* If you wish to then distribute your app in Palm's App Catalog, there will be a $50 per-application fee.
* But if you distribute via the web, you can do so for free.So depending on how you mix and match those, development for webOS can range from free to roughly $150 a year.
But there are also rules with regard to the screening of the apps:
* If you want to distribute your app in Palm's App Catalog, it is subject to review by Palm.
* But if you do web distribution, there is a "fast" self-certification process.So why put your app in the store at all? Well first, unless you have your own advertising means, Palm's store will undoubtedly be a better place for discovery on a large scale. Second, with apps that are sold in the App Catalog, Palm offers a 70/30 cut, with 70 percent of the gross revenues going to developers. (Which is the same deal that Apple offers). And third, apps in the Catalog will also get access to detailed analytics (stats, ratings, etc) that will be shared with the rest of the community.
Striking It Rich: Is There An App For That?
Steve Demeter seems like the perfect poster boy for Apple. Two years ago, the 30-year-old computer programmer became one of the first people to sell his product—a puzzle game called Trism—through Apple's App Store, a virtual marketplace where third-party software developers connect with customers wanting downloads for their iPhones. He pulled in $250,000 in just two months and quit his job writing code for ATMs. Demeter's success caught the eye of Apple's public-relations team, which profiled him in an inspirational video at Apple.com and gave him a shout out at its June 2009 World Wide Developers' Conference (WWDC). Media hailed the San Francisco resident an "App Store Millionaire" who would never have to work again—a happy financial reality that Demeter confirms. "Nine-to-five is no longer a concept for me," he tells NEWSWEEK.Only that's not because of Apple.
Demeter's new-found wealth—he won't specify the exact amount in case people bombard him for loans—comes from investing his earnings in Apple's archrival Palm. "I bought Palm's stock for $1.76 and sold it for $12," he says. "It's kind of ironic."
RE: Striking It Rich: Is There An App For That?
Palm's stock is a sham. The company gets three cash infusions from Elevation Partners, disappointing quarterly Pre sales, and a stock sale, and it somehow increases in price. That defies logic, and it has nothing to do with Palm's credibility as a competitor. It has everything to do with low-volume trading and a stock market that no longer represents the economy.
RE: Striking It Rich: Is There An App For That?
== The Market Can Stay Irrational Longer Than You Can Stay Solvent.
RE: Striking It Rich: Is There An App For That?
well we don't know all the details. we don't know how much he bought. regardless, he speculated, he gambled and appears to have won. but he could have just as easily lost it all. IMO - if he gambled with a huge chunk of his net worth - it was irresponsible. if it was a small amount he gambled with, i can't see how the returns after taxes could be life changing in and of themselves.
i have 3 pieces of wisdom for him -
1. never confuse luck with skill. but it's better to be lucky than good!
2. "There is a small god in the trading pits that allows everyone to call the top correctly once and the bottom correctly once, and to be wrong as many times as he or she likes."
3. never buy a stripper a car.
RE: Striking It Rich: Is There An App For That?
That's just the opening to the article, which I found amusing. It actually goes quite a bit in-depth into some of the difficulties that developers face making it big in the App Store, though. Good read. It also indirectly illustrates why Palm's web-language-based approach can be a big advantage - the investment you need to make in time (and thus, money) is significantly lower when you can build apps so much more quickly, and don't have to wait for Big Brother to give you the A-OK.
Of course, there's a trade-off - sophisticated games aren't really possible yet, and once they are they'll still be expensive (as games always are). But the point is solid: a gold-rush atmosphere, difficulties in getting promotion and the race-to-the-bottom pricing mentality is making things very tough for some devs. Palm seem to be learning from these problems. Hopefully they'll be able to mitigate them.
RE: Striking It Rich: Is There An App For That?
RE: Striking It Rich: Is There An App For That?
Get frikkin real. If *I* had had the $$$, *I* would have bought Palm stock to hold after the Pre announcement. It was INEVITABLE that it'd go up. Another goddam small fortune lost.
>>>i have 3 pieces of wisdom for him -
>>>1. never confuse luck with skill. but it's better to be lucky than good!
That depends. A lucky incompetent is no asset.
>>>2. "There is a small god in the trading pits that allows everyone to call the top correctly once and the bottom correctly once, and to be wrong as many times as he or she likes."
Good luck never lasts, bad luck never ends. I coined that.
>>>3. never buy a stripper a car.
Wait. What? Oh shit!
RE: Striking It Rich: Is There An App For That?
everything looks easy and obvious in hindsight. we remember the would-be successful bets but forget about all of the ones that would have lost.
any gains from these occasions are likely to be wiped away as it gives the investor a false confidence that he can repeat his successes.
RE: Striking It Rich: Is There An App For That?
Anyway, baloney.
You're just sore that YOU couldn't see Palm doing a ~6x valuation increase. I thought it'd go 10x. It might well do that as a premium for acquisition.
And with your propensity for the gross and vulgar, why didn't YOU think up iFart? That prick is raking in EIGHT GRAND A DAY!!
iPhone Apps have made us rich!
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/2672385/iPod-Apps-have-made-us-rich.html
Suddenly Gekko finds an interest in Palm Pre development. HTML5/CSS/JavaScript, Gekko. Do you want fries with that?
RE: Striking It Rich: Is There An App For That?
RE: Striking It Rich: Is There An App For That?
no. bartender in south beach.
"We attribute our successes to our skills, and our failures to external events outside our control."
"Human instinct tends to mean we ascribe meaning to mere noise. Most of what seems like talent among chief executives or fund managers is pure luck; randomness will always favour a few. Worse, traders can appear to be doing far better than is justified, until they lose it all when one huge bet goes against them. The risks people forget are of things that have not happened before and of share price movements considered impossible or absurd."
- Taleb
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