I recently learned that Palm launched a new App Store for all its current devices.  After checking it out, here’s my advice … don’t bother.  It would have at least been nice to receive an email, or SMS, or upgrade alert to my phone to tell me when it launched a few months back.  Instead, I found out while googling about the new App catalogue for the Palm Pre and stumbling upon this site.  It seemed promising, but after downloading it to my device, two soft resets, and a slow navigation through the list, I’ll probably never use it again.  The Applications available are minimal and expensive.  Average price of an application is $20, with many being closer to $40!  Sure, plenty of them have “”free”” trials, but those run out so what’s the point?  I’ve had much more success at TreoCentral over the years getting cool free apps, and much happier with the results.  If Palm wants to successfully compete in this new multi-media device arena, they need a major change of thought.

Long story short, it was a nice attempt by Palm to stay competitive with Apple, BlackBerry, and Android.  But, if they don’t find a way to make their offerings cheaper, more plentiful, and easier to install, this site will be a huge waste of their already very low cash-flow.  Let’s just hope they don’t plan to structure the Palm Pre App store after this one – come on Palm, we know you are better than this!  The Pre is going to revolutionize the mobile universe.  It is going to change the way manufacturers and developers think for years to come … don’t squander this advantage with an App Store that no one will want to take advantage of!  iTunes has sold $1 Billion applications in just 2 years!  Most apps are free or just a buck.  This is the standard you need to live up to or this whole experiment will fail miserably.