It was hard to know where to start in talking about all the exciting software development prospects for the Palm Pre and webOS. I began by speculating about an eventual Java SDK for webOS, which would be a heck of a left hook to follow the Mojo SDK's right jab. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Even just considering the JavaScript SDK they have already announced Palm has put themselves in an astonishing strategic position that I'm surprised no one is talking about. By building a system using de facto cross-platform standards like JavaScript, WebKit, Java and Jetty, Palm has made a great platform for creating companion applications that can run on any desktop—Windows, Mac, or Linux—leveraging the same code that runs on the handset. You won't see Apple being able to deliver iPhone applications to the desktop like that any time soon, at least not for the 90% of personal computer users that don't own Macs.
Palm has prepared us not to expect desktop synchronization via cable or cradle like what Palm OS users have been accustomed to since the beginning. But the Pre is among other things a modernization of the original Palm concept of having always-on-you personal information management, updated to the reality that much of people's personal information now lives in the cloud. The desktop is still going to be the command center for most people's digital life and Palm knows it. So gazing into my crystal ball, let me tell you how the desktop story will in fact unfold:
LAS VEGAS, CTIA Wireless 2009, Apr 1, 2009 - Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) today announced the Palm Desktop Companion, an application that brings to the Windows and Mac desktop the same integrated calendar and contacts found on the Pre smartphone.... Desktop Companion uses [crystal ball is clouding a bit here] to keep your calendar and contacts synchronized automatically without the use of cables or cradles. [Did I make out the phrase "peer-to-peer" when the crystal hazed over in that moment? Or was there a faint trace about a "secure web service"? Oh well, the future is coming through clearly again now.]
SUNNYVALE, CA - May 15, 2009 - Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) today announced that the Mojo SDK will not only enable third party developers to write applications for webOS devices like the Pre smartphone, but to deploy the same applications to the Palm Desktop Companion.... "The SDK enables webOS developers that follow some simple SDK guidelines to build applications that 'unfold' naturally on computers with larger screens for the extra ease and efficiency of the full desktop experience" says Palm's VP of Developer Services Horton Hooville.... [The image dimmed for a moment there... not sure I got that name right.]
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif - June 23, 2009 - Three days ahead of the scheduled release of Palm's Pre smartphone, Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced the release of GMail and Google Docs for the Pre as well as for the Palm Desktop Companion.... This announcement brings Google's popular mail service to the Pre as well as instant access to all of your office documents at any time. When at their desktop, users of Palm Desktop Companion now have access to Gmail and the ability to view and edit documents, presentations and spreadsheets even when they are offline....
BARCELONA, GSMA Mobile World Congress, Feb 15, 2010 - Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) today announced the Foleo Pro Mobile Companion... The Foleo Pro runs properly configured applications created for the Pre without modification, but with the same ease of use found in the Palm Desktop Companion application.
The unfolding UI concept would be the key to making application screens that stack on the phone to display side-by-side in the familiar "master-detail" layout seen in applications like the original Palm Desktop and Microsoft Outlook. I blogged some thoughts about this idea way back in Sept 2005 in one of my very first posts, complete with a lame mock-up to illustrate. It's simple, really. Many, if not most mobile applications provide a "master" or "list" view of the data from which the user selects an item and then navigates to a screen that displays the details of the selected item with additional options for manipulating it. If these master and detail screens (or "cards" as Palm now seems to like calling them) are identified as having this relationship in the code by using an API that binds the selection in the master view to what is displayed in the detail view, all it takes to spread the stacked cards across a larger surface so they are viewable side-by-side is a little CSS. Making a desktop version of a webOS application might involve no additional coding at all, just some care to follow certain design guidelines.
The main work for Palm would be to create a native application that hosts the webOS environment on each system they want to support and provides some hooks into system services so that things like calendar event reminders work from the desktop. From what I can glean from looking at the leaked screenshots of the SDK in action, most of the hard work of developing this desktop presence has already been done since it went into developing the webOS middleware already on the Pre. That's the main reason I'm optimistic that Palm could pull this off during this period of severely strapped resources.
They would also want to integrate their application store in the desktop companion app, since the desktop is clearly the easiest and most engaging way to search for and try out applications. Letting application shoppers try an application in a simulated Pre phone launched from the desktop app would be a great way to break down the natural resistance to trying something new. I also believe there are opportunities to make installation of the application to the phone slicker and smoother than we've seen on other platforms using a desktop companion app like this.
Of course, some mobile phone features that Pre applications could use like the microphone, camera, voicemail, SMS and GPS would not be natively supported on most desktop computers. But if Palm or a third party were to implement peer-to-peer communication between the Pre and "Palm Desktop Companion" it wouldn't be much of a stretch to make even these phone features usable from the desktop. While you're at your desk you could receive SMS messages, proxied by your phone, and answer them using the keyboard and mouse already at your fingertips. With that link to the phone in place, seeing voicemails show up in the inbox of the desktop companion and being able to listen to them there might be a modest effort that extends Palm's story about total integration of messaging and contacts one notch further. Desktop web searches or mapping applications could be localized by clicking a "near my current location" toggle that geocodes a GPS fix retrieved from the Pre in your pocket and adds the location data to the query.
What a spectacle it would be to see Palm show up out of nowhere as one of the players in the hotly contested cloud computing arena. And not just to show, but to conquer a niche because their AJAX APIs expose unique messaging, location, even voice and camera functions on the mobile that only their position as a mobile software/hardware integrator makes possible!
Am I getting carried away now? Perhaps a bit. I may have compressed the timeline for these developments to unfold. But my bet is that their webOS strategy gives Palm a long enough lever to move some surprising mountains, even in their current weakened state. If they share the vision I've described, the key success factor in realizing it will be a peerless commitment to enabling the success of third party developers so that Palm has a strong ecosystem to pass the baton to. Palm's success in the 90's was built on stellar developer support and it's revival today must be built the same way. Early indications give hope that Palm gets this.
If Palm declines to offer a C/C++ or Java SDK and loses some developers in order to focus their energies on getting webOS and the Mojo SDK a place on the desktop, it'll be hard for me to feel all that disappointed. For that, I'll brush off my JavaScript skills and get right to work.
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