App Catalog now allows developers to support multiple app versions 18

Attention webOS developers, HP's making more changes to satisfy your needs (of the app development type, naturally). There are two changes to how things are going to operate with the App Catalog, one for the better, and one for the legal. Let's get the legal out of the way: due to new European Union laws affecting the VAT (Value-Added Tax) rate for application purchases, HP has automatically increased the price of apps in supported Eurozone countries to reflect the increased taxation rate. Unlike in the US, where sales tax is added after-the-fact, app pricing in Europe reflects the price with the VAT included. As such, to preserve developer margins on these apps, HP has automatically bumped up the price to the consumer. You, as a developer, can go back in and readjust the price should you see fit.

Higher taxes and the higher associated cost (or lower margins, should you go that route) are always a bummer, so here's some good news: the webOS App Catalog now supports multiple versions of the same app for different versions of webOS. This allows developers to continue improving and enhancing their apps with features that take advantage of newer APIs in newer versions of webOS without breaking the app for customers stuck on older versions.

For clarity's sake, a hypothetical: Your app, 'Huzzah' was made for webOS 1.4.5. You want to update Huzzah for webOS 2.x, but doing so will break the app for your loyal customers still on webOS 1.4.5. Before developers were stuck between a rock and an out-of-date operating system version. Today, you can can simply submit the updated version Huzzah app and uncheck the devices no longer supported by the update and the App Catalog will continue to serve the old, still-functioning version to those on the older version of webOS. So, if you've been holding off upgrading your app to more modern APIs and whatnot, never fear, you won't be abandoning anybody anymore.