Palm Launches App Store

It seems Palm is trying to get in on the action in any way it can. Yesterday news emerged about the company’s plans to unveil a new operating system at CES in an effort to bridge the gap between the iPhone and the Blackberry.

Palm has launched its own application store for its devices, the Palm Software Store. According to Electronista, third-party firm PocketGear is on board to manage the store, allowing Palm to offer over 5,000 apps on launch from around 1,500 developers.

The launch really does go hand in hand with yesterday’s news about Nova. Palm aims to target people who are a little bit too serious for an iPhone but not serious enough for a BlackBerry, a market the company thinks has plenty of room for the next Palm device running Nova. “People’s work and personal lives are melding," said Ed Colligan, CEO of Palm. Colligan added that Palm is aiming for the "fat middle of the market."

Unfortunately, with the iPhone pushing a more business approach along with its fun aspect and RIM selling the social side of BlacBerrys (the company just recently released MySpace for BlackBerry) to compliment the device’s business-like reputation it looks like Nova and the Software Store might be too little too late. The popularity of the iPhone, the BlackBerry and the HTC G1, along with their individual app stores/centres/markets will make it difficult for Palm to get its foot in the door.

The underlying “us too!!” aside, we can’t wait to see what Nova has to offer come January. Stay tuned!