Palm announces improvements to both its WebOS and developers tools

Richard Goodwin

Palm has announced imporovements to both its WebOS and developers tools in a bid to make its smartphones, namely the Pre and the Pixi, more competitive in the global market.

Currently Palm is trailing both RIM, Apple, and Android in the smartphone market. However, Palm has also struggled to develop and maintain a competitive presence within the world of apps as well.

Palm users have only 800 apps at their disposal, which isn't very good at all, especially when compared to Apple's 100,000 or Android's 80,000 strong apps stores.

Palm has also confirmed that it will be releasing a WebOS update for the Pixi and Pre that will bring a number of improvements to the two smartphones.

Palm CEO Jon Rubenstein said the 1.3.5 software will "let customers download and store more applications, enhance Wi-Fi and application performance, improve battery life, and increase Pixi's speed and responsiveness."

However, there has been no official confirmation as to when the update will see the light of day - although many suspect it to land in January 2010.

Nevertheless it seems certain that Palm is about the fully engage in the apps war with the up-and-coming release of its new developers tool, known as Ares.

According to reports, Ares enables developers to create content, such as applications and widgets, using only their web browsers, which makes the platform more attractive to would-be developers as it doesn't require them to have expert knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript.