I think people are just very skeptical about Palm's future. They've been slow to fix some of WebOS's biggest shortcomings and for some odd reason they decided to release a slower more limited WebOS device out before bringing the Pre to GSM or Verizon. What Palm really needs is a higher end WebOS device -- something with more than 8GB of non-expandable storage and perhaps a larger touchscreen model with no physical keyboard. At that point they'd be in good shape to compete with Android & iPhone. Otherwise they're just another "also ran"

I like everything they're doing; I just don't trust their capability to win enough market share to make developing on their platform meaningful. Plus, I don't own one so I wouldn't dogfood.

On the other hand, while there are fewer WebOS devices out there, there's a massive shortage of Palm apps. You could make an extremely sound business porting successful iPhone apps to the Pre. You'd have huge mindshare if you launched there, first, too.

All in all, working on the development environment is a great play by palm.

I'm excited by the ideas and approach of Palm, but their phone bores me. When I hold it I don't feel like I'm holding something substantial -- a sensation the iPhone does give me.

Nobody runs WebOS.

To the mysterious downmodder: according to Gartner, WebOS has 0.2% of the smartphone OS market. Nobody runs WebOS. Writing for it is a waste of time unless you think that will change.

http://gigaom.com/2009/11/12/palm-pre-sales-in-substantial-d...