Earlier today, Palm announced that they are now accepting submissions for paid applications to the App Catalog. The App Catalog e-commerce beta program will help ensure Palm and application developers are ready to offer paid, commercial applications to Palm webOS users.
As part of the App Catalog e-commerce beta program for the Palm Pre phone and future Palm webOS devices, developers will receive a 70/30 split (developer/Palm) of gross revenues generated through application sales (less applicable sales taxes). Customers will be able to easily purchase applications using Visa and MasterCard credit cards. Further details about the program and distribution model will be provided in the coming weeks. Palm expects to launch the full developer program in the United States this fall.
“We’re rolling out the submission process and e-commerce capabilities of the Palm App Catalog with careful consideration for both the developer and customer,” said Katie Mitic, senior vice president, Product Marketing, Palm, Inc. “We want every part of the Palm webOS experience to be the best, and a strong e-commerce model is key to a thriving developer community, great apps and an excellent customer experience.”
More information about how developers can submit an application for the beta e-commerce program, as well as criteria for application acceptance, is available on the Palm Developer Network blog at http://pdnblog.palm.com/.
I’m glad to see that Palm is moving forward with getting their act together with paid applications for Palm webOS. I recently was talking to one developer who stated that they where holding back applications until Palm was ready to start building out their infrastructure for paid applications. The good news it that once the App Catalog payment system is put in place, I’m expecting that to see more applications being added to the App Catalog with a much greater frequency.
You can read the full press release on the Palm website.