Palm's app store christened App Catalog, games not a priority

Following an apparent rejection of our suggestion of "Immaculate Collection," Palm's Developer Network site suggests that the official name of its app store for webOS is simply going to be "App Catalog". The name isn't terribly important, but the concept is critical -- every mobile platform of consequence is moving in the direction of intelligent, on-the-go app management, and with the Pre, Palm can't afford to be any different in that regard.

Outside Palm's inner circle of trusted partners, the webOS SDK (playfully named "Mojo") won't be released to would-be app developers until we get closer to the Pre's launch, but we know a few key details. First off, as "webOS" implies, apps written for the platform are web-based -- HTML, JavaScript, that sort of stuff -- but unlike Apple's original vision for the iPhone, Palm's going to include libraries that allow devs to tap in to the Pre's hardware capabilities and interact closely with services exposed by the operating system. For users, that means apps are hopefully going to be rich and powerful, but graphically intensive, heavily interactive things -- think games, mainly -- aren't likely to happen. That's not to say Palm won't eventually offer a binary SDK, but the tools they appear to be offering up front won't get the job done, and we've confirmed in talking to Palm that Pre gaming was never a priority for the company during the development cycle. In a nutshell: Tetris, yes; Tetrisphere, not so much.

[Via Mobile Roar]

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 10th 2009 5:06PM]

Well, that's the first strike against the Pre in my opinion.

Still getting it unless a better Android device surfaces before the Pre launch or the Pre gets more strikes against it

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 10th 2009 8:23PM]

I'm still interested in the device. Who cares about feature-packed games on such a small screen anyway? I've had many WM devices, but haven't used them too much to play a lot of games on it, so it's not a negative in my opinion.

--James

[SeanR Posted Jan 11th 2009 3:05AM]

Really and truly, it's a minus, but a very small minus. I'm sure the phone can play simple games like Tetris. Bejeweled, Poker and what have you. I'm not looking for a Call of Duty/God of War experience on my phone.

If I want to play games, I'll play my xbox 360 or pick up another PSP or the new DSi coming out.

It it does come with 3d gaming capability then great, but who can honestly say they play the games on their phones constantly for this to matter, I used to have tons of games for my Treo 700p and 755, but always ended up playing Tetris or Bejeweled because thats what games on phones are supposed to be... short lil enjoyable games.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 11th 2009 2:14PM]

exactly, i just need a simple game of Tetris while I take a dump. nothing more...

[SeanR Posted Jan 12th 2009 1:15PM]

Dude! I thought I was the only one!