Confirmation is in that Palm's e-commerce program will be going live this Thursday, according to a recently leaked company timeline. Uploading apps to the App Catalog will cost you $99 / year for the privilege (beta participants will get in for just $5 the first year), and developers will be paid for their sales via PayPal on a 70/30 split. Users can then purchase apps via credit card.
For an idea of how much people are willing to pay for webOS apps, Precentral has started a new poll to determine the most popular price point. With the proliferation of cheap iPhone apps, will $1 apps rise to the top? Maybe not, as Palm Developer Community Manager Chuq Von Rospach previously stressed quality over quantity for webOS apps.
"This news represents a milestone for the Palm team...adding paid applications provides developers the incentive to build lucrative apps", gadgetell writes. Other notables to look forward to include a GSM Palm Pre, rumored to arrive in Europe this Fall, and the webOS Pixi coming by the holidays, which will be compatible with a vast majority of current webOS apps out of the box.
The overhaul of the App Catalog also seems like an ideal time for Palm to release their webOS 1.2 update, which has been in the works for some time, and adds numerous enhancements.
UPDATE: Looks like Palm delayed the release, and it is now expected next week. It could be that webOS is making the jump right to 1.2.1 including e-commerce features, or gives them additional time to iron out iTunes 9 compatibility (now 9.01).
Thursday, 24 September 2009