WebOS 1.0.3 available for the Pre but no new Apps.

Earlier today (okay technically it was yesterday) Palm made version 1.0.3 of WebOS available for Pre users. While I'm sure it may have many goodies to increase performance or reliability. The one thing it most certainly doesn't have is a way to magically make Palm get off it's ass and release their damn SDK and get more apps in the App Catalog.

So far I've been relatively pleased with the Pre. There are some sticking points which I presume will be addressed in fairly short order. The thing that's made me most want to chuck my little "river stone" into the river is the fact that there are only (as of this writing) 30 apps available for download from the App Store.. I mean App Catalogue err uhh Catalog.

What are they Thinking?

SmartPhones and mobile internet devices live and die by the applications that run on them. There is no one who should understand this better than the people at Palm. They basically created the SmartPhone with the HandSpring VisorPhone in 2000 and before that they helped create the mobile applications market with PalmOS running on the Palm Pilot 500 and beyond.

What made the Palm Pilot so popular wasn't the ease with this one could pick up Grafiti or the number of stylus taps it took to get to a contact or create an appointment. It was the ability to download new applications and write some of your own.

Seriously release it already

There will likely be a swell of development for the platform once the tools are made available. That is if they don't kill all of their momentum by making us wait too long. They've built a fairly nifty device with a great interface. It's something you want to keep in your hands and play with. The only problem is that there's nothing to keep you occupied while you're holding it.