With the Pre now in customers’ hands and reports of webOS hacks in the news, we know that you are more anxious than ever to get access to the SDK and start developing for webOS.
We’ve been working very hard on the SDK and are eager to open access on a wider scale, but the software and the developer services to support it just aren’t ready yet.
Our goal is to make the SDK available to everyone by the end of this summer, and to get there in stages:
- Beginning immediately, we’ll accelerate the growth of the early access program, expanding as quickly as resources allow. Over the next few weeks, the program will grow from hundreds to thousands of developers.
- Simultaneously, we’ll begin publishing more content outside the early access program, and we’ll launch new confidentiality rules that will allow early Mojo developers to communicate more freely with the rest of the world.
- As soon as we can, we’ll open the SDK to all legitimate requests.
Until you have the SDK, we encourage you to explore other public webOS resources, including the Rough Cuts edition of Mitch Allen’s upcoming book and the sites run by our great community of enthusiasts.
We’ve also begun getting questions about Palm’s stance toward the webOS development “experiments” that have emerged outside the early access program over the last week. We’re focused on building a robust and easy-to-use Mojo SDK, and an ecosystem that benefits developers, end users, carriers and Palm alike. As on any popular platform, we recognize that some developers will experiment in ways that cross official boundaries, but we believe that our formal offerings – and community efforts built around those offerings – will provide the best experience for the vast majority of webOS developers and users.
Thanks again for your enthusiasm and support as we roll webOS out to the world!
END OF SUMMER!? Am I the only one apauled at this??
Great! Can you send me the unsupported version? I will deal with the issues
Good for you guys for being so up-front and clear and responsive. I’m wondering where I might fit in. I’ve been a web developer for a while trying more recently to transition to application development (.Net). I’d love to develop something for the Pre, but it would just be in my spare time. Should I wait for Mojo to go public or apply for early access?
I would apply. you have to start sometime, and with the expansion we’re working to get going, there’s going to be a lot more room for people to get started.
I’ve read the RoughCuts book and it hasn’t allowed me to get an app in customers’ hands. I’ve worked with the various community site and it hasn’t allowed me to get an app in customers’ hands. I’ve built a couple apps using the community methods available without the SDK, but it hasn’t allowed me to get an app in customers’ hands.
You have developers climbing all over themselves trying to help your platform be a success and trying to help your ecosystem grow, but you just keep putting us off with vague promises of releasing Soon or the End of the Summer or Early Access or “hundreds” and “thousands”, but the longer you delay actually getting the SDK in the hands of developers like myself who are ready, willing, and able to use it to make your platform a success the more of an uphill battle it will be once you finally do.
I’ve been an applicant for the early access program for I don’t know how long, but right now I can release apps for the iPhone, I can release apps for Windows Mobile, and I can release apps for the BlackBerry. I can’t release apps for the Pre and so I just can’t commit scarce development resources based on vague promises and half-finished books.
This is not the way to get developers into your camp.
Still doesn’t give me warm fuzzies. After all the number of apps for WebOS is still very pathetic. There are tons of developers jumping at the bit to write software for it. We have very few applications to show for how many months of early access to MojoSDK?
By the end of the summer. What do you think this lack of applications is doing when people compare the Pre to the iPhone? or the Blackberry?
One of the number one drawbacks of the Palm Pre, if one is to believe the media hype machine (which many people do) is the lack of third-party applications available for the Pre.
Given the success of the experimental/homebrew community in less than two weeks, *without* official support, documentation, or debugging tools, I can only imagine that the pool of quality apps will explode exponentially once the SDK is released.
Wider availability of the SDK is going to catapult the Pre forward in the market, and I really want this device to be successful.
Take your time, my apps aren’t finished yet!
Boy, I could not agree with you more, Kyle. We’re chomping at the bit to get our hands on the SDK and our products into that disti channel. This feels badly mismanaged.
The good news is they’re opening things up a bit, so that should help – we’ll see how things progress.
Come on guys. You need to open up this phone and get the apps flowing. It’s sad that more exciting things are coming out of the Palm/webOS dev wiki instead of Palm itself! It’s like you’ve dropped a wonderful gadget into the hands of thousands of people and now it has to just sit there looking pretty for months before it’s potential can be unleashed!
You need to pull all-nighters and get this SDK released BEFORE that fall deadline.
So what do I have to do to get into Palm inner circle and get access to the SDK? It sounds like a cheep way to give some developers a “headstart” and really isn’t fair to the rest of us! Also, we’re developers – not consumers! We donlt need a perfect SDK right away! Just look at the hacking community. We’re trying to do our part to help make webOS a success but you Palm don’t seam to wan tour help!
Yes, people, while “end of summer” is not only seemingly far away but also an ambiguous “release date”, I think we have to realize that Palm needs to iron out the kinks. The Pre is a great device, but you cannot deny the facts that there are some features that need work. Undoubtedly Palm is spending time and resources to fix those problems instead of prepping the SDK for release. Yes, I agree, it is an imperative component to a successful smartphone, but I would rather have a working phone with 30 apps then a buggy one with 1000 apps. Look, we ARE getting the SDK and while it may not be tomorrow, it isn’t a year-long wait. I applaud Palm on giving somewhat of an estimate for the release, as well as what appears to be widening the early-access program to more developers. If you have any information or questions or even Palm-flaming to do, post on our forums about it – PreInsiders Forums
What does that mean for the planned preDevCamp events on August 8? Will the SDK be in the hands of all developers who registered to attend well in advance before those meetings?
The RoughCuts book is a well written resource and shaping up nicely however without an SDK to explore the examples its use is limited.
Just release the sdk unsupported. This delay is a big failure on palms part. There are very few apps available now, most of which are of ppoor quality. This mistake could ultimately kill the pre. End of summer? If it is released that late, you might as well takw the phone off of the market right now.
This is a very poor decision on part of Palm. A fully matured SDK and App release system should have been in place at the same time the Pre launched. This is weak sauce and I expected much more from Palm. Especially with how important a full App Catalog is in this post-iPhone world.
You need to clarify your stance on distribution. I am rooting for Palm to introduce some much-needed competition to the smartphones-worth-a-damn category and shake Apple’s complacency. When the time came to upgrade my iPhone 2G, I considered the Palm. I ended up getting an iPhone 3GS for the following reasons:
1) SDK openness: according to this article only signed apps will be allowed to be installed on the Pre. In other words, the same level of control by the handset maker and the carrier as with Apple. As a developer I don’t want to be a slave on Steve Job’s plantation, that doesn’t mean I am going to volunteer for Rubinstein’s. If the platform doesn’t allow me to install apps without the blessing of someone else, I won’t consider developing for it.
2) Tethering, or lack thereof. Enough said…
3) The Pre has a plastic shell prone to scratches. You would think Palm would have learnt from the criticism Apple encountered with the plastic iPods.
You do realize that all you are doing is allowing a large and destructive snowball to get larger…right?
With the SDK, even an immature one, we would be developing within Palm’s desired process and with their technology stack.
Without the SDK, we will roam around the phone at the OS level…and start doing whatever we want. Will we create apps usig Mojo? Sure, we have everything that we need on the phone. Will they be as high quality and stable without IDE plugins and emulators to develop and test on? Heck no. Will non-techies need to root their phone to install them? yes. Will many of them break their phones and complain widely after doing so. Yes again. Will it be easier to mod your apps rather than roll our on? Yes again.
Not only that, we will start playing with the JVM on the phone…and moving out from underneath the WebOS sandbox. Why the heck would I live in the WebOS box if you won’t even give me the SDK? Yeah, okay thanks, but I’ll start writing right against the metal thanks. Perhaps we’ll install LAMP. Who knows, but you are *far* to behind the iPhone to not have an SDK on the streets today…and you will most likely live to regret this decision after you see what we are about to do to this phone.
Look, it’s more than app developers. Little ol’ webmasters like me run a lot of mobile SDKs to make sure our web sites work properly on all available platforms.
You guys really need to get an SDK in our hands, and in the devs’ hands, right away. You don’t have to provide ‘support’ for all SDK users.
Google (Android), BlackBerry, Apple (iPhone), Nokia (S60), Microsoft (WM), and even Palm (Palm OS) have mobile SDKs available for free download for EVERYBODY, complete with emulators that allow webmasters to test their sites.
WebOS is the only major mobile platform that I can’t emulate on my machine for browser testing.
While I appreciate that a few months is faster than the iPhone got their SDK out, ease of programming for third party apps was one of the BIGGEST selling points in many people’s decision to buy a pre.
Palm needs to get an unofficial SDK out sooner. Not something clean and shiney, but if some devs can use it, why can’t all of them? SDK Beta would be a brilliant move and show a commitment to getting tools in our hands. Devs are used to beta.
I love the phone, but Palm screwing things up was a big fear of mine and this isn’t looking good at all…
I suspect Palm is caught between these tensions:
1) webOS 1.x is not final. We’ve seen Comments in code that seems to reflect that.
2) webOS 1.x will have at least one more — if not two — OTA updates that will greatly change APIs.
3) With those APIs being changed, it would create a hellacious developer support situation for Palm.
4) The bottom line of that would be wasting the time of developers and possibly alienating them too.
It is hard to be patient and I find the delay odd too, but I suspect the above is what is happening behind the scenes.
I purchased a Pre on launch day, apparently lured under false pretenses. The phone launched without basic features (an alarm) and key components (synergy) are broken (i.e. syncing with facebook). Now I’m being told that I have to wait months until the phone is finally ready for prime-time? That’s simply unfair to your most loyal customers…
Further, I’m not sure if this is Palm’s goal, but with every announcement of a delay it seriosuly degrades the value of the Sprint exclusivity. Why switch to Sprint when the phone isn’t even ready yet? It’s looking more and more like Palm’s true completion of the Pre is simply timed to coincide with Verizon’s launch of the device…
Please get the SDK into the hands of developers AND get the App Store to a point of being able to charge for the apps!!! I’m a user that wants nothing more right now than for my wife and I to be able to spend MONEY buying apps for our Pre phones. Please Palm, take our money!!!
I’m glad Palm is going the get the SDK out relatively soon. I disagree with posters like #15 — it would have been a bad decision to delay the release of the phone until the SDK was ready. It’s better to have a great device out there that can gather a user base, then have the SDK available than to have an SDK out for a device that never ships.
It’s frustrating but Palm should take its time and this is understandable.
It’s one thing for tools and documentation to be premature, but a premature framework API could cause long term damage to development on the platform.
This looks bad guys. Very bad.
I purchased a Pre on launch day, apparently lured under false pretenses. The phone launched without basic features (an alarm) and key components (synergy) are still broken (i.e. syncing with facebook). Now I’m being told that I have to wait months until the phone is finally ready for prime-time? It sounds cliche, but that’s simply unfair to your most loyal customers…
Further, I’m sure this isn’t Palm’s goal, but with every announcement of a delay it seriosuly degrades the value of the Sprint exclusivity. Why switch to Sprint when the phone isn’t even ready yet? It’s looking more and more like Palm’s true completion of the Pre is simply timed to coincide with Verizon’s launch of the device…
Communication creates hope. Please increase the level of communication and release more information to the community to give us hope. You need to go far beyond what you’ve been doing. You have tens of thousands of early adopters taking a chance on this once-and-future great company. The iPhone is tugging at us, and it’s very strong, but it’s also a very closed platform and ecosystem, and we appreciate that. Yours is a platform founded on open source and openness.
Give us a timeframe for when you are planning to release the next OS update, even if you don’t give the exact day. Tell us what’s going to be fixed or added in that release. And, crazy thought, tell us about the next one after that. Give us something to look forward to. Yes, you’ll annoy people because their personal pet peeve isn’t going to be addressed in that particular release. But you’ll please hundreds, if not thousands more. Tell us why it’s taking so long to get apps into the App Catalog. Own up to it, give us the nitty gritty details. We understand you had to deliver a ton of functionality on day one, more than Apple did on their day one for sure. But today is not then and you’re up against juggernauts. Give us a reason not to return this phone before 30 days are up.
This SDK announcement was a huge disappointment to me, because it means I will have to decide whether to take a leap of faith by keeping this device after 30 days. This is a 2-year contract I’m on the hook for, and if you don’t come through, I’m the chump. On what shall I base this leap of faith? I bought my Pre just this Tuesday. It’s great, but it’s not yet great enough to keep me from looking longingly at the iPhone and its vast catalog of apps. I need to know what I can expect from you and your platform, because in my eyes, you’re a new, unproven entity. You have a rich history, and I’ve bought many Handspring and Palm products in the past. My company has both written software for and sold Palm OS hardware. But now I think we all must properly consider you a completely new and somewhat risky endeavor (which is lucky for you, because I owned a 700p).
Leading up to the release of the phone, new details were leaking out on a daily basis. I suspect that was planned to kindle interest. Since the launch, it’s like everyone went to Tahiti to celebrate. It’s been very very quiet. You guys are underdogs, and sadly there’s no rest for underdogs. You’re probably exhausted after a two year marathon, but you’re in a fight for your lives and the clock is running down. The more information you deliver, the fewer returns you’re going to have at the end of 30 days.
Perhaps you’ve got an ace up your sleeve. Maybe next week one morning I’m going to wake up with a Pre update waiting to install, and it’s going to be amazing, and it’ll save everyone from wanting to return the phone rather than take the leap of faith. If this is your plan, please realize that every day until then is an added day of concern and much teeth gnashing for people like me. It’s another day of cumulative psychic weight that Palm will have to somehow overcome if/when they do deliver the goods.
Silence begets fear and dread. In this age of advanced communication, blogs, and twitter, silence breeds contempt. It makes us wonder what you’re not telling us. I’m sure it’s hard to see this from the inside. Out here, we’re wondering if we’re going to be stuck with a glitchy phone, serious buyer’s remorse, the balance of a 2-year contract and an empty App Catalog in six months.
You cannot communicate too much, Palm. Although honestly, you might want to intervene and prevent Sprint from doing another Facebook chat.
Palm, you cannot afford to wait until ‘by the end of the summer’ You have a bunch of eager developers who are just not going to care anymore by the time the end of the summer gets here. Release it now!
Thanks, folks for the thoughtful and candid comments.
Expanding your access, even though it’s still private, is the best lever we have to pull right now.
The big problem is scalability. We still have manual bottlenecks in the process, and we’re knocking those out as fast as we can.
We *are* listening, and we don’t for a second expect you to let us off the hook
best,
pd
Sorry if this is a bit blunt but this is horse doo doo. I switched from an iPhone to the Pre KNOWING the 3GS was coming out but I wanted something new and exciting and thought the Pre was it. For a smartphone it’s pretty dumb right now, and it’s not the phone’s fault…You guys are totally getting the Lee Trevino from me.
Very UGLY move… shame on you Palm…!!! Don’t be like Apple… Give us the SDK now!!!
Keep up the great work, Palm. I’m extremely impressed with the device. I can’t wait to see what incredible improvements gen 2 and 3 bring!
Stay the course on the SDK, and get it to us as soon as it’s ready. The earlier the better, but I trust your judgment about when it will be ready for prime time.
There’s an easy solution to this. “Accidentally” leak the SDK.
I’m glad to see ANY further response from Palm here.
However, I’m not sure why Palm can’t more widely release an SDK with an agreement that it is released WITHOUT SUPPORT to those choosing that option. If apps have to be approved before release and distribution, as I’m sure they do, at least this would give developers a chance to get building .. and would leave the delay restricted to distribution AFTER approval .. preventing any “out of bounds” issues.
Hacks are going to occur in any event.. but the lack of an official SDK, even an unsupported one, makes the likelihood of ugly hacks higher.
The fact that Palm has released an OS which can run standard-language apps natively on the Pre is BRILLIANT .. but we can’t help Palm and Sprint win market enthusiasm OR meet our own project goals without a toolset…even an imperfect one.
Please, Palm, release an unsupported SDK and let us deal with any irregularities…
wow…. pretty disappointing. considering how much is riding on the success of this phone and OS, it seems extremely ill-advised to take this approach. who is running the show there – steve jobs?
I agree with Jaron: we’re developers, we don’t need the SDK to be polished or completely finished. I wish I had noted that in the application. I wish you could give the early access to developers like us who expressed our opinion like that and wait for a public release until it’s finished for the rest of the crowds.
What a bunch of impatient whiners!
Re-read the 1st two bullet points in this announcement. They are significantly expanding the early access program. So Kyle Goodwin, if you’ve signed up for it, you may get the pre-release SDK in a week or two. They’re also going to be releasing more content and relaxing the restrictions on the people who are already in the program. Both are very good things. I would rather have a finished SDK than one that was rushed out and is incomplete.
I’m pretty sure that I’ll get a Pre and I’ll probably play around developing code for it too. But I’m patient enough to wait for the SDK to be released. I know that developers inside of Palm and other companies are busy working on code for it. Updates are in the pipeline according to the rumors. IMHO, it’s better to let them do it right the first time than it is to rush them into releasing a half-baked product. The hacker community is finding all sorts of things about it and that will satisfy my curiosity for now.
Tick…Tick…Tick…Palm, your window of opportunity is closing very fast – like a ticking time bomb. This whole nonsense of waiting until the “SDK” is basked perfectly isn’t doing Palm and this excited developer community any good. Just release it “as is” and let developers know its still “Beta” and that the API/Platform is still a moving target…then, let them make the decision if they wish to jump into the pool or not. Simple as that!
Thanks for updating us!
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Speaking from a user (SPrint) point of view, i’ve waited for this phone since CES. Stood in line at 445AM (first in line) to get this phone.I’ve owned 300, 600p, 700p, 700wx, and the 800w (a major investment in Palm). Started looking for another phone b/c i got tired of the same ole design though the 800w was the best of them all. Then CES hit…i was blown away..and decided to stay with Palm. I was very happy that Palm was not after the Iphone or Bberry. But you were after everybody else (me). I read alot of blogs and make my own decisions based on info tht i collect. Palm, i am patiently waiting for you to release the SDK to these eager developers. Why? because it will make my PRE that much more valuable to me. Iphone didnt have 50k apps when it was initially released.. neither did BBerry. I know the world looks at you as the underdog…but please don’t act like one. I understand that you wann do it right the first time. And I understand that anything overlooked can be fatel to your bottom line. Plese be alittle more open reguarding the SDK. Just imagine…if it was available today, lot more phones will be sold. Sincerely, A long time Palm customer..
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Oh for God’s sake… I want it too, but get real. Palm is 1/20th the size of Rim, less than 1/20th the size of the iphone division at apple.
you can NOT expect them to have the app store, approval process for devs and etc up yet. The first _absolutely first_ attempt at programming webos by an person not on the development team was only August ’08. 10 months ago.
Breath people. Go to the pre dev wiki, get on the irc, and get apps written and ready.
Has anyone at Palm considered that by releasing the current tools, it’d give Palm a free pool of testers for the SDK?
Also it’d give us a head start on learning. Reading chapters from an incomplete book, or rummaging the internet for hacks is hardly what we need at this point in time. We need access!!! NOW!
Palm’s seen fit to give access to a few that they have “blessed”, but it’s clearly unfair to leave everyone else in the dark.
As noted above in all the other posts… the clock is clicking away… and may run out before the end of summer rolls around.
Help us, Help you, because you need it more than we do
Exactly Osborne, the beta must reach a more broad developer pool. Let those who want to play risk modding a few API’s after the full release. Small price to pay for a faster growing, more dynamic application pool — which is exactly Palm needs right now to compete.
I was initially excited about developing for the Pre (I’m currently an iPhone developer). But now, still waiting for the SDK that I applied for, I feel that Palm is too stupid, or clumsy, to be worth bothering with. This is a *JavaScript* SDK we’re talking about, vastly less complex than Apple’s! It should have/could have been released LONG before this.
“The big problem is scalability. We still have manual bottlenecks in the process…” That’s meaningless, mealy-mouthed BS.
Palm, RIP. Pre purchasers are suckers. And at this point, it looks like even this comment system no longer works (can’t take the criticism, Palm?)
Tiered feedback cycles make a lot of sense. It takes time to read comments. Better to start small, check the work, then draw in a larger group to be sure.
Thanks but no thanks. I’m getting myself an iPhone and develop for it.
Classic Palm fail. You can see they haven’t changed much, it’s only a facade. Apple might be App Store Nazis, but at least you can develop apps for it. Hell, when the iPhone came out, you could easily get access to documents about writing WEB APPS for it, which is essentially what this whole SDK thing is. What a joke. You’re delaying the WEB APP SDK, NOT EVEN SOMETHING WE CAN USE TO WRITE NATIVE APPS! I was hoping the Pre would make it, to drive competition, but my hopes have been all but diminished by this stupid SDK policy. I think in the end it will be Android vs iPhone, and Palm and it’s Pre will slowly disappear. Palm might even start making Android phones, at least they have an SDK!
I can appreciate not wanting to release software before it’s baked. As someone who has worked on APIs used by millions of people I can really appreciate why the release might be delayed if the APIs are changing. What I can’t appreciate is why we can’t at least have documentation. If you guys can sell a book with this info months in advance of the os’s release and you can give the info out to a select few, why can’t we all have access to it?
While I want to get my hands on the SDK right now, like all of you. I do actually want it to be a finished product. Developing on an SDK that’s not done, is like building a house with the ground shifting underfoot. So Palm, take your time (though not too much time
) and get it right.