Palm App Catalog, Not Yet a Success App Purchase Limitations Imposed; Bug Determines Palm to Temporarily Remove Paid Apps from the Store

If Apple manages to run a successful App Store it doesn t mean that
anyone else can do it too. And Apple s App Store is certainly successful
as there are over 75,000 apps inside and they have been downloaded so
far about 2 billion times. Palm s similar venture, the brand new App
Catalog, isn t doing that good yet.

Sure we will not overlook the fact that the App Store isn t perfect
either as Apple has more than once proved it will do as it pleases when
it comes to the App Store and the content it offers. But at least Apple
s App Store has been working properly from day one. That s one
characteristic Palm s App Catalog still lacks.

So what s wrong with the App Catalog? Ignoring the fact that Palm
launched its store too long after announcing it, it looks like the
company is not yet ready to manage it properly. A certain bug in the
system would let you download paid apps for free. All you had to do was
to build your own dummy application and give it the same name of the app
you wanted. Then you simply had to request an update for that app which
would get you free access to the paid version you were actually
interested in. Everything has been fixed apparently and although Palm
removed the paid apps when noticing the issue, they should be available
for download right about now.

The App Catalog is definitely not yet a success! For whatever reason
Palm has decided to limit the number of applications that can be
installed by users on their Pre handsets. In fact Palm has issued
automatic warnings to customers advising them to delete applications
from the Pre in order to be able to install more apps. And Palm is
ignoring the OS issue so far as its customer support department is
denying these limitations. What s the matter Palm? These limitations are
costing you money since users aren t purchasing more apps!

Am I done complaining? Not entirely folks! There s one more problem with
Palm s App Catalog. The company has announced that it s willing to let
developers skip the App Catalog and offer them a special URL for app
open distribution over the Internet. Sure the move is interesting from
the developer s point of view. But regular users will be even more
confused when getting apps. What should they look for? The App Catalog,
which we ve seen it s not perfected yet, or some dedicated URL which
will offer free apps?