• December 17, 2008

Catching up with Apple and Google, Palm has launched its own online application store. The Palm Software Store lets users download apps to more than 25 mobile devices running both the Palm OS and Windows Mobile. That includes Palm's Centro and Treo Pro smartphones.

The store is offering 5,000 apps to start, 1,000 of which are free. Among the high-profile brands jumping in are Facebook, Encyclopedia Britannica, Pac-Man, Tetris and Fish Tycoon.

The opening of Palm's app store comes a few weeks ahead of its launch of a new mobile operating system dubbed Nova. Palm is counting on the new operating system and app store to help ignite a resurgence in the face of heightened competition from the likes of Apple and BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion.

When it comes to apps, Palm has a long way to go to catch up with Apple. The company recently disclosed 300 million iPhone apps have been downloaded to date.--Mark Walsh