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As of June 17, over 700,000 applications have been downloaded on the Palm Pre.  Critics of the Palm Pre point to its 3rd party application storehouse as a weak spot for an otherwise strong smartphone player.  700,000 is an impressive number, right?  Maybe not.

If we can trust the 50,000 units sold the opening weekend and assume they’ve sold at least that amount in the following week, that’s 100,000 phones floating around out there.  If this plausible number is accurate, that’s an average of 7 apps downloaded per user.  To quote Scooby Doo, “ruh ro.”

Why so few downloads per unit?  Could it be the choice of only 30 apps available? 

To make matters worse, the SDK has been pushed back to the end of summer, frustrating developers.  Ben Patterson, for Yahoo Tech says, “Personally, I’m amazed that we’re still waiting for Palm’s Mojo SDK, especially given that Apple’s robust App Store is such a key selling point for the iPhone. Indeed, many of you have commented that you’re holding off on the Pre precisely because of its near-empty catalog.”

Palm addressed it’s developer network with this:

Our goal is to make the SDK available to everyone by the end of this summer, and to get there in stages:

• Beginning immediately, we’ll accelerate the growth of the early access program, expanding as quickly as resources allow. Over the next few weeks, the program will grow from hundreds to thousands of developers.
• Simultaneously, we’ll begin publishing more content outside the early access program, and we’ll launch new confidentiality rules that will allow early Mojo developers to communicate more freely with the rest of the world.
• As soon as we can, we’ll open the SDK to all legitimate requests.

The download numbers show one thing: apps are now part of the smartphone experience.  Apple is going to keep emphasizing its robust App Store while Palm keeps an eye to the future.  Not a good position for Palm to be in as it struggles to remain relevant.

To be fair, these 30 applications that are in the Pre’s store are among the best sellers.  Many of the winning categories of the iPhone App Store are represented, just in very limited numbers.  To complicate matters, they are all free so Palm isn’t seeing the cash cow like Apple.

So, will the Pre twist in the wind waiting for Palm to get the SDK out?  Will Palm developers jump to flood the Pre with new apps?  What will be the first paid app for the Pre?  It is going to be a long summer for many.

Source: [Register]