HP to offer resources, incentives, promotions to developers caught in the Mojo to Enyo transition 15
On Saturday we grabbed a statement from HP about the development roadmap for webOS developers for 2011 and noted that it looked to us like there was a very bright development future with a dark tunnel in the short term as developers are looking at maintaining Mojo apps while learning the new, awesome Enyo framework.
Looks like HP heard both us and developers. In two posts on their Developer blog they not only mentioned an expansion of their free Pre 2 for developers program but also talked about expandig support. In "Making the Transition to webOS 2.0 and Beyond," HP's Sean Lindo writes that HP is "actively expanding resources to help you develop for webOS" and that there are "New incentives and promotions" coming soon to "reward your efforts and support of webOS."
More interestingly, Lindo put up a second post "Mojo and Enyo: Two Great Opportunities" wherein he touts the potential sales numbers of the Veer and the Pre 3 while noting that developers should "factor in the effort that will be required to rebuild these apps in Enyo." Most importantly, Lindo hints that they have plans in the works to help ease the transition to Enyo for current Mojo webOS developers:
Rest assured, we’re going to give you the tools and resources to make this transition as smooth as possible.
HP is ready to provide the strongest marketing and distribution ever for webOS devices. We want to work with our development community to provide your apps to more customers worldwide
Sounds like a plan to us. More free Pre 2 phones for "qualified" developers, "incentives and promotions" for developers, and "tools and resources" for the transition. All of the above may be necessary to keep the current crop of webOS developers on board. What about current webOS users who won't be getting webOS 2.0? We eagerly await more details on the solution is to "make things right."
Source: Palm Developer Blog 1, Palm Developer Blog 2
15 Comments
Does this mean I will get a free Pre 2 - :P
glad you mentioned the users' portion, seeing this swell of support for the developers brings me more hope that they actually will 'make things right' for the current users
Does Mojo now have the mic API? At least with the microphone APIs in Mojo, developers can develop apps that would be "firsts" for the older devices too, such as Shazam, VOIP and SIP clients, voice dialers, etc.
It is all very well to encourage developers to keep working with the Mojo platform, but without additional functionality in Mojo it is hard to make new types of apps for WebOS. (Unless you are a homebrew developer intent on doing things the hard way, but most developers need to see a return for their effort).
Well, there are apps in the catalog that use the mic API. I remember there was a voice recorder app, but the developer pulled it because people on 1.4.5 were buying it and they would never be able to use it.
He wouldn't have to if Palm would transition the app catalog to 2.0, instead of letting 2.0 apps appear on phones that will never get 2.0 updates. I feel sad for the poor sod who sees a 2.0 app in the catalog and thinks an update is on the way.
Enyo huh??? Doesn't look anything like HTML coding to me. I guess legacy developers just threw their arms up in the air.
"factor in the effort that will be required to rebuild these apps in Enyo."
I guess that means charge for a completely new app rather than make it an update.
The way the App Catalog is set up for developers, we should be able to submit the completely rewritten app as an update when Enyo get's a public SDK release. Although since it is rewriting the entire app from scratch, I could see some developers charging for a new app (myself not included). But it will be very frowned upon.
I don't wanna develop apps, but I would love to give ideas to those who do build them and of course recieve some credit for the ideas. Where can I possibly do that?
App ideas are currently worth about $0.10 for 12 ideas.
Unfortunately for you Lobo, the $0.10/12 is the old rate, prior to the announcements of 2/9. Deflation is now occurring as a result of these announcements. Since no ideas have been purchased since before 2/9, we have no basis for current pricing, but I expect that it will occur soon - as soon as someone starts sending me money to listen to an idea. I only accept cash at this point. PM me for details.
HP is bringing all positive news to this dedicated community.
They donate a server.
They hand out phones at a discount.
They hand out phones for free.
They are doing everthing possible to make their investment fly.
And they are involving the people who have been around from day one.
And they had to make choices for the better.
Looks all promising. And webOS our beloved system will move on and grow...
Seems like it is getting some love from carriers as well...
this is what I just read:
wa wa wa wawa wa FREE PHONES wawu wa wuhwa wa wa.
all of those things sound great until you realize HP didn't say what any of it meant.
WHAT TOOLS? WHAT RESOURCES? And what users will they have left?
HP, details or it didn't happen...
The biggest challenge that HP needs to jump is one that seems to be beyond their means. Provide the next generation phone within 30 days of the announcement. The Veer is not a next generation phone. The Pre3 isn't either. HP truly needs to surpass the competition in order to get back into the game. Neither of these phones does that today. Why does HP think they will do that 3 months and 6 months from now. By then, the competition will make these two seem even more antiquated than now.
HP - you want developers to stay? Bring something to the table that makes developers believe that it will sell 1 million phones on release day.
Great... HP is going to invest resources to port apps the Enyo framework that will never run on my Pre-...
As if there weren't too few app for my Pre- now there will be even less. Why should I spend money buying apps that will soon will only support Enyo.
Until my contract runs out, in a long year and a half, I'll have to continue to apologize to my wife who I talked into getting a Pre. Is this my reward for being a Palm fan?
I should have gotten her an Android.