Palm App Catalog Back Up After Dark Weekend
According to Palm and reports from several users, a glitch took down the App Catalog, Palm’s mobile application storefront and its answer to the Apple iPhone App Store and Google’s Android Market. Thousands of users were blocked from accessing the store.
In a blog post from this weekend, Palm product manager Joe Hayashi wrote, “If you’ve experienced any issue downloading or updating apps from the Palm App Catalog recently, rest assured that Palm is actively working to remedy the situation. If you’ve purchased an app, the transaction has been properly recorded and as soon as this issue is resolved, you’ll be able to access all apps you’ve purchased (or, in the case of free apps, requested to download).”
Later, Palm wrote that the issues had been resolved but shed no light on what knocked the App Catalog out of commission. Palm also didn’t reveal exactly how long access to the storefront was unavailable.
According to some user posts on Palm message boards, Palm users with Palm Pre and Palm Pixi smartphones received various error messages when trying to log into the App Catalog. It appeared the outage was limited to devices running Palm’s webOS.
And while Palm righted the issue quickly, some users and developers were left with a sour taste in their mouths after the outage.
“How in good [conscience] could Palm accept payments for apps that can't be downloaded?” one commenter asked.
Meanwhile, one developer whose application was affected by the downtime was concerned about the impact the outage would have on sales and perceptions. “My apps are getting tons of negative reviews for failed installs. Please post a message in the catalog so people know it’s not the individual apps’ fault, but the catalog overall.”
The downed Palm App Catalog comes just three weeks after high-tech giant HP inked a $1.2 billion deal to acquire Palm. The acquisition saves Palm, which has been on a downward spiral for years, suffering slumping sales and declining revenue and failing to recapture the luster it had early on when it pioneered the Palm Pilot. It also helps HP combine its global scale and financial muscle with Palm’s smartphone and mobile platform portfolio to better attack the mobile device market.