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Up to now, we have heard very little about Palm's answer to Apple's App Store, which has enjoyed widespread success among the developer community and consumers alike. MyTriniPhone has an article describing a recent study from the Global Intelligence Alliance Group (GIA) that found the iPhone "miles ahead" of competing app stores. Several criteria are included in the study, including time to market, developer appeal, price and availability.

Because the Pre isn't out yet, as expected it ranked poorly in many areas. However, based on the facts so far, we can speculate on what Palm will do to earn them a top spot once the Pre is released. Handsets in the study included the iPhone, Pre, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile (WM), and Nokia devices.

In terms of time to market, Apple and Google both ranked "strong". Apple has been selling software since July 2008 and now has over 15,000 apps available, with over 17 million handsets sold through the end of 2008. The market widens as most apps also run on the iPod touch.

Google only started selling Android software last month, but have about 140 apps out so far (nine of them paid). 300,000 units were sold by the end of 2009, and other devices based on the Android platform are expected. RIM bests Apple with a staggering 21 million users, although their sub-platforms vary considerably between devices. RIM and Nokia were rated "medium" in time to market, while Microsoft and Palm were rated "weak", with their stores scheduled later this year.

How could Palm succeed here? With Palm CEO Ed Colligan confirming last month that apps would be open to third party distributers (unlike iPhone apps), this could help Palm to build support while the App Catalog is under construction. Also, analysts have also predicted as many as 1.5 million Palm Pre devices will sell in the first year, besting many of its competitors.

In terms of attraction to developers, the report ranked Apple, Android, RIM and Nokia as strong, Microsoft and Palm as medium. For platform adoption, Nokia and Microsoft were on top, Apple and RIM second, and Android and Palm third. Palm can gain ground quickly here, as the use of web technologies in webOS makes it a platform that countless web developers will feel at home on, much more than the Java language of the iPhone. Once the much-antipated Palm SDK is released, we will likely see a huge shakeup in Palm's rankings here. Our recent article on how webOS has energized developers highlight the anticipation of the platform. Palm also is starting out strong with big name partners, and historically has lead the market in open source development.

For software store interface iPhone, Android, Nokia, were strong (Palm also expected strong with a great webOS interface), with WM and Blackberry second. For number and variety of apps, iPhone and WM were strong, Android were medium, and Nokia, Blackberry and Palm were weak. The sheer volume of apps (about 20,000) put WM in front, however the iPhone apps clearly win out on price. Palm can definitely become competitive in the selection department with many PalmOS developers waiting to port their software over to the neww platform. An example is Pivotal Labs, one of Palm's launch partners who are working with many other third parties to bring apps to the Pre.

As for where Palm will slot in terms of app prices, this is harder to tell. What do you think? Do you think offering many apps at a low price (as low as a dollar, or free ad-supported), could help Palm gain ground on the iPhone App Store? This could be a key factor in consumer appeal, as many people (including myself) find it a lot easier to shell out 99 cents vs. $9.99 or more for an app or game. The article also alludes to the fact that Palm is planning to partner with PayPal to handle transactions. Apple also is unique for security, in that their unified system inhibits widespread piracy. This always could also play a factor in future developer interest for the platform. What other things should Palm be doing to give them a running start in the way of applications?

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