Palm App catalog hits 1,000 apps... okay, 946
By Laura June 
posted December 31st 2009 7:37PM
posted December 31st 2009 7:37PM
posted December 31st 2009 7:37PM
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
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always happy to see more competition in the market.
@chimercialsprial
Well cnet seems to think that Palm will die next year (not that they're usually right), but that would mean a lack of competition. Either way, I don't see how 1000 apps is really any competition for any phone.
@MJGAMER 1991 XBL
How many apps did the iPhone start with?
@EGOvoruhk when the App Store opened it had 500 I believe
@MJGAMER 1991 XBL
You honestly think Palm is ... competition...?
No. Google is competition. Palm/Winmo can go away and no one would notice.
@HighestRanked
The iPhone launched with ZERO downloadable apps. Palm's meager 30 was 30 more than the iPhone had for a full year. And, by your count of 500 at the App Store's launch, Palm has doubled that in half the time WITHOUT the benefit of an already existing user base.
Apple had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into allowing 3rd party apps. They're lucky they were so wrong.
@ColonelKernel
Palm entered the market competing against 3GS, not iPhone 2G. Any comparisons with past models are bunk because it tends to ignore the reality in the marketplace.
@(Unverified)
ITunes may boast over 100,000 apps but when you're talking about 200 different fart apps, 150 piano apps, 100 different flashlight apps, etc...it really isn't all that impressive. What I care about is which platform actually has the apps I'm interested in using. For me it's Windows Mobile which allows me to run my SlingPlayer app and Orb over a 3G network and that's something that not even one of those 100,000 apps can claim.
@DaveBach Sorry, but no matter how you look at it 100,000 apps beats 1,000 any day, there's no comparison. And I bet the chances of finding useful apps is a lot higher on the iPhone than it is on Pre due to the ratio size. Unless you've got an iPhone and actually used one please don't make generalisations like that.
@Dragonfly
Actually, I have an iPod touch that I won at a golf outing. I say that because I would have never bought one myself. So as far as me and my opinions go they are based on the fact that I have had experience with the iTunes app store.
Again...I am NOT impressed with the boasting apple does of their 100,000 apps. It's like if a headphone manufacturer claimed their ear buds reproduced sounds from 5Hz to 100,000Hz even though the human ear can only hear from approximately 15Hz to 20,000Hz. Dogs can handle three times that. The remaining 40,000 wouldn't even get a dog's attention.
@Dragonfly
100,000 apps of which the majority of them are of no use is albeit nonsensical to myself and i'm sure most of everyone else. It's not like you could fit 100,000 apps on your iPhone or any phone. I believe that apps should be produced with reason and purpose and not just because they can. Hence the useful vs plentiful argument.
@MJGAMER 1991 XBL
I agree with CNET's assessment of Palm. I really don't think the upper management at Palm really have an idea of how to remain competitive in the smartphone arena. Rubenstein and the rest of them think that they have the greatest product out there. They make decisions as if the demand for Palm products is the same as the demand for Apple products.
There should be a new statistic, instead of "apps" it should be "useful apps"...I bet that would level the statistical playing field a little.
@yulebellow
a little? most of the apps on the itunes are fluff garbage.
@fatslug but the apps that ARE useful blows the competition away.
@Paul B Chapel Yeah. I'm so sick of my iPhone, but the app store is keeping me from ditching it. Everyone says "well, but the iPhone has 100,000 app" and then "smart"people say "ya, but most of them are crap" but the reality is there are still more useful ones then any other app store...
@fatslug "most of the apps on the itunes are fluff garbage."
Prove it.
@HighestRanked
Page 1
http://ax.search.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/search?entity=software&media=all&restrict=true&submit=seeAllLockups&term=Fart
Page 2
http://ax.search.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/search?entity=software&media=all&page=2&restrict=true&startIndex=180&term=Fart
Page 3
http://ax.search.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/search?entity=software&media=all&page=3&restrict=true&startIndex=360&term=Fart
;-)
@yulebellow
The iPhone apps in this best-of list are unparalleled in contrast with the apps in other platforms:
http://gizmodo.com/tag/iphone-apps-directory/
At any rate, the more Pre apps, the better. I have nothing against the Palm and I support their cause. The more Palm, Google, RIM and Apple succeed, the more nails land in the coffin of WinMo.
@yulebellow
Holy crap... that's almost 600 fart apps!
So what you're saying is that *most* of the iPhone app store is, in fact, fart apps.
Oh wait...
@yulebellow
Sorry, I didn't realize the usefulness of an app was dictated by you your highness. Going forward I will surely seek your approval as to whether or not you find the app I'm about to download to be useful to me.
@High it would be funny if you actually followed through with that
@yulebellow
I think you're dead on. It's the number of useful apps vs. the number of total apps. But odds are if the iPhone has 100x the number apps webOS does, it probably has more useful apps as well. But then again you have more junk apps to sort through to find the real treasures.
But webOS has a lot of unique features that will allow its apps to really shine now that more and more developers are jumping into the webOS bandwagon.
It's funny that this article was released today because coincidentally my webOS app, GeoStrings, was released in the catalog today and helped to contribute to this almost-milestone. One example of a unique feature that webOS has that the iPhone does not is background processing. GeoStrings is a task manager that is location-based. It runs in the background and notifies the user when they reach a certain distance from a target location. Apps like this are simply not possible on the iPhone (via the official Apple app store).
So the webOS platform has a lot of potential and I think in the coming year we'll start to see its potential being tapped into.
@High Ah, so you are the mythical user that finds fart apps useful. Do you have tonight's homework assignment? I can't fail 3rd grade again.
@iCello
Try finding a Mobile SlingPlayer app that will connect to my SlingBox and stream my video content over the 3G network. You'll find the app but it doesn't need an app store. I run it on two of my Windows Mobile devices. Having said that I'm really not a big fan of the Windows Mobile app store...I prefer the Kinoma app store.
They couldn't wait to post this until the app catalog actually hit 1,000?
@Devin its because of my name... Palm has lost so big its sad!
@Devin
Than they would probably need to wait a couple of months more and other news websites already posted it they don't wanna be left out im guessing.
@PalmIsGarbage you're such a loser get a life
I don't understand why people get so emotionally attached to phones, its just a phone if you don't like it then don't get thats really enough said.
This has been a good week for Palm (especially with the release of webOS 1.3.5) and so in a way, it is appropriate that the news is posted; especially since it is so close to the big 1,000 mark and it's a good way to finish a great year for Palm.
From a journalistic standpoint, Engadget did the right thing.
Here is the reason: The headline contains the actual number of 946, so it is pretty clear what the actual number is. What everyone should focus on is the fact that 6+ months after the Palm Pre is released, and 3+ months after the App Catalog was opened, there are virtually 1,000 applications now available for the Palm Pre smart phone.
@Rinum009 i just cant stand it when palm fanboys living in 2003 act like anything palm has done this year can even start to hold a candle to what apple and google are doing. it cant!
by new years 2011 palm will be a sad footnote in history, a tale of how not to run a market leading company and ultimately be forced into closing down shop after wasting several hundreds of millions of Bono's hard earned dollars.
palms best hope at this point is being bought out by Nokia or Dell... and that isnt much to hope for
@PalmIsGarbage
Bono wipes his ass with a wad of ben franklins, I'm sure he has little interest in what Palm has done with his money.
@Devin they usually release 10 or 15 apps a day sometimes less but I guess they wanted to say it early
how long before the iphone trolls come and brag about their 100k apps that consists of crappier versions of websites, fart noises, crap ported games, and other useless nonproductive "apps"
@Troll
hello,the iphone has liek so many useful apps and games.
i mean, it just blows me away!
BLOWS me away!
/sarcasm
@Paul B Chapel
Too bad there's no App that actually BLOWS you.
@Troll The iPhone App market has 100k apps and most of them are crap because of Apple's marketing of the iPod touch. They marketed it as a gaming device, as such, it was aimed toward the younger audiences, casual users. And all those apps flooded the App Store market to little tweens for them to have fun. That is both bad and good for the iPhone App Store.
That said, not all of the iPhone Apps are crap, as many have said before. Some are very well done. Just gotta find the hidden gems.
@Troll Oh no Paul Chapel is back!!!!!!!!!!!!!¡
@Troll
i agree, most of my friends have ipod touches, and i havent seen any good apps. there is maybe a few good apps for the iphone that you need to pay for but thats it. most of the apps are 2-d games, picture apps, joke apps, noise making apps or a 3-d app with "buttons" in the corners of the screen. not much to brag about. plus i can play all of those games on addictingames.com anyways
@Troll I stand behind my name... Palm has already lost!
@Troll
A thousand apps? Weak and puny!
@PalmIsGarbage
It's great that you spent 3 minutes creating your name just to be a douche, but personally I don't give a flying fuck. And I don't many other people do as well. Go away and stop spamming you're incoherent hate.
@AndroidRokz nope, the original isn't back, that was Paul A Chapel,
im his successor, Paul B Chapel.
Engadget,
Please deny/remove such names: "PalmIsG...."
...it is a denigration of the Palm brand!
@Teslanaut "most of them are crap because of Apple's marketing..."
Dead wrong. Apple does not tell developers what apps to create. Try again.
@(Unverified) "most of my friends have ipod touches, and i havent seen any good apps."
Funny how some people try to pretend that, because it's Apple's, having the largest app library catalog of any app store is somehow a fault.
I'll let you in on a hint. Gizmodo publishes a list of best iPhone apps each month and they're quite amazing. Here you go, best of '09 edition:
http://gizmodo.com/5436652/gizmodos-essential-iphone-apps-the-best-of-2009?skyline=true&s=i
Happy downloading :)
@HighestRanked
I agree. I don't know why people think that more choice is a bad thing.
All it proves is that more developers are making apps for the iPhone... instead of other platforms.
@Thinker stop crying palm fanboy. freedom of speech!
... and by the way, my name isnt denigrating the "palm name", palm's sad attempts at smartphones is denigrating to a name that hasnt been worth much for many years
@HighestRanked When did I ever say Apple dictates what Developers create? You read what I said right? Apple marketed the device (iPod touch) as a gaming device. "Funnest iPod ever". Developers see that and clamor to that aspect to make the big/quick bucks, making what people who use the iPod touch would want. That flooded the App Store, which is for both the iPhone and iPod touch.
Please, do not take what I say out of context.