Palm Pre App Catalog Hits 1 Million Downloads

The Palm Pre, the world's first webOS device, went on sale in the United States on June 6. With it Palm launched a cor

responding mobile software channel, the Pre App Catalog, which already boasts a number of great applications. Earlier this week, Medialets, a mobile advertising and analytics firm, released App Catalog metrics that suggest Palm's new app store hit the 1M downloads mark on June 24, just 18 days after its launch. Palm Pre App Catalog Total App Downloads Since Launch, via Medialets. (See "Eight Top Free Downloads for Palm Pre.")

That's impressive when you consider the fact that those millions application downloads can be attributed to just 150,000 Pres sold. That's an average of more than six app-downloads per device and 33,333 thousand total downloads per application, according to Medialets, with a download-low of 2,400 and a high of 114,000.

It's even more notable with some additional context. For example, the Palm Pre/webOS software developer's kit (SDK), dubbed Mojo, which provides developers with the tools necessary to create webOS apps, isn't even publically available yet. Developers using the Mojo SDK are participants in Palm's "early access program," and have likely signed away all sorts of freedoms in exchange for access to the tools. In other words, developers using the Mojo SDK for Pre are currently doing so according to a set of (strict) Palm rules.

Palm plans to release the SDK by the end of summer, but until then, it's up to the company who can and who cannot build Pre apps for distribution via App Catalog. Also developers who sign Palm's Mojo SDK non-disclosure agreement (NDS) can't talk about the SDK to anyone. They can't share feedback or best practices.

Furthermore, the App Catalog itself is still in "beta" testing stages, and as such, developers aren't yet allowed to charge for applications, according to Ed Finkler, creator of the popular Spaz Twitter application, which is available in Palm's App Catalog.

Finkler's currently offering Spaz for free via App Catalog, but he plans to eventually charge a small fee--from $1 to $3--to compensate folks who have contributed to Spaz, which is an open-source project. (Finkler will also make all pertinent Spaz for Pre source code available online, so it'll be free to those crafty enough to circumvent App Catalog.)

Such SDK and pricing restraints make it difficult, if not impossible, for independent developers like Finkler--who isn't funded by some large corporate entity--to sink time and resources into a Pre app because he and his fellow Spaz contributors aren't monetarily compensated in any way...yet.

As such, it doesn't currently make sense to compare App Catalog progress with the success of other major mobile software stores like the iTunes App Store or BlackBerry App World. But that didn't stop Medialets from doing so. From the company:

"[C]omparing at the 1 million mark, the average Palm Pre user had downloaded 26x the number of apps that iPhone users had, and the average app in the App Catalog experienced 16x the number of downloads that apps in the App Store had experienced."

Again, this is a bit like comparing Apple to oranges. But the Palm Pre App Catalog is off to an impressive start any way you look at it. And this is just the beginning. Wait until the Mojo SDK is available to anyone who wants it. Developers will then (hopefully) starting sharing best practices and lessons learned. They'll be able to price apps in any way they please.

And new webOS devices, which will also presumably run App Catalog software, are on the near horizon.

All of these factors and more will surely draw more developers to the platform. The quality of applications will increase as more and more competing offerings make their ways into App Catalog. And Pre users will have access to a more robust ecosystem and webOS experience, which will in turn draw new users.

To sum that all up: The future's so bright for Palm's App Catalog, I'm putting on my Ray-Bans right now.

New Role Urged for ICANN

Saturday, June 27, 2009 10:42 AM PDT

The world's regional Internet registries (RIRs) have added their weight to call for Internet governance to be privatized.

The RIRs have followed the European Union's demand, proposed by European Commissioner Viviane Reding last month, for the ending of the collaboration agreement between ICANN and the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The RIRs, responsible for IP address allocation within geographic regions, have put out a joint statement saying that it was time for the U.S. government to pull out of control of the Internet: he Internet Domain Name System (DNS) is currently managed by ICANN and the U.S. Department of Commerce under an agreement set to expire on 30 September.

Axel Pawlik, managing director of European RIR, RIPE NCC, told Techworld that there was no cohesion between the EU call and the RIRs' position. "We didn't confer with each other, we seen several ideas from the EU, some of which that we thought we were good, but there's no question of this being coordinated in any way.

Pawlik stressed that all the RIRs -- including the north American registry, ARIN, were in full agreement on this issue. He also made it plain that the RIRs had no complaints about the way that ICANN was run, merely the problems that Internet governance structure caused.

"It's purely a political issue," he said. "We have an excellent opinion of ICANN based on the way that it runs things, but it's the political dimension can cause problems," he said.

The RIRs said that the existing Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) should be given great power. "It's purely advisory at the moment," said Pawlik, "there are some countries -- notably China -- that don't get involved but the GAC could be taken more seriously, giving stakeholders a greater say." He also said that European Commissioner Reding's idea of a G-12 for Internet governance was an interesting idea "but we'd still be arguing as to who the 12 countries would be in 50 years' time."

However, Pawlik is realistic enough to know that the U.S. is not going to give up control of ICANN lightly. "They asked for comments and we've made our views known," he said. "But even with the change of administration, I can't see them loosening that control," he added.