Their App Catalog is still trailing a considerable distance behind Apple’s bulging App Store, but US Palm Pre and Pixi users should soon have over a thousand apps to download on to their devices.
If you include the 380+ apps bubbling away in the HomeBrew community, it all points to healthy growth for Palm’s innovative webOS operating system.
No fun in the UK
UK users aren’t so lucky however, with the app store still only offering a paltry 197 apps.
Despite the Pre being released back in October, the UK App Catalog remains firmly rooted in beta, with only free and trial apps available, and no mechanism for buying full versions.
A poor deal
UK users have every right to feel the poor relation when it comes to all things Palm.
In the US, Palm Pre users can enjoy live Sprint TV on their handsets, buy music on the move from Amazon and get turn by turn GPS satnav directions, none of which are available in the UK.
Moreover, US users have been able to buy the rather smart Palm Pixi – a low cost, cut down version of the Pre – for two months now while in the UK Palm haven’t even announced a release date.
With reports of o2 shifting far less Pre handsets in the UK than anticipated, we think it’s time the company stepped up their efforts if they’re hoping to get any kind of traction over here. Give the UK some love, Palm!
I’m intrigued…about how many man-hours would it take for Palm to UK-ise the App Catalog? Are they slack, stupid or lazy? Or is there another reason..in which case they are idiots for not keeping UK Palm users on side by telling us.
It’s rubbish like this that could make anyone thinking of getting a Pre simply give up and get an iPhone… seriously Palm, this makes it look like you are giving up or going out of business.