Sprint not troubled by scarcity of Palm Pre apps

With Palm's Pre smartphone poised to launch this weekend, exclusive operator partner Sprint tells The Wall Street Journal it is not concerned by the relative scarcity of mobile applications optimized for the device's fledgling webOS software platform. "You're not going to get a critical mass of developers coding for the new platform until you give them devices," said Sprint vice president of product and technology development Kevin Packingham. "There's only so many things you can control in the initial delivery." Palm issued the webOS software development kit in early April.

Packingham also acknowledged a bug afflicting the new Palm Software Store that leads Pre applications to crash, and said Palm and Sprint are addressing the issue. "The moment a device is ready is when you can say the foundation of it is ready," he said.

Sprint will sell the Pre for $199 after a $100 mail-in rebate and a two-year service contract. According to Packingham, the operator is anticipating shortages in Pre inventory upon launch, but contended supplies are not intentionally limited in order to make near-term upgrades--instead, Palm and Sprint simply underestimated consumer demand.

For more on the Pre launch:
- read this Wall Street Journal article