Palm Pre app store to follow Apple Model

The Palm Pre app store, which is due to open up next month, seems to have taken some inspiration from Apple’s model for its App Store.

The store dubbed “Palm App Catalog” has begun accepting submissions for paid and free applications, although currently it is only open for those selected for the beta program. These early beta developers will thus get the chance to market their application before other developers get a shot at it when it opens for all developers later this year.

The Palm App Catalog eCommerce beta will be starting in mid-September, and will allow the developers to charge a fee (minimum $0.99) for their applications. Palm has decided to go for a model similar to that of Apple for revenues, i.e. Developers get 70% less the sales tax, and Palm gets to keep the other 30%.

In their announcement, they have also laid down their conditions for accepting application:

• Apps should be useful and engaging to users.
• They need to have an appealing design and user interface aligned with Palm UI guidelines.
• They are written specifically for webOS and not delivered through the browser.
• They leverage webOS platform and device capabilities, for example, notifications, multitasking/background processing, location services, accelerometer.
• They have acceptable performance and response time on the device; apps with slow UI response or sluggish performance will be rejected. Applications that consume excessive power on the device will also be rejected.

Makes sense? Hopefully, there will be formal and definite guideline in the time to come.

The guideline seems to be encouraging people to use more features of the device, unlike another platform we know about. With a review process, and model so similar to the Apple Store, one has to hope that Palm doesn’t make the same mistakes.