Today at the CTIA Wireless Show in Los Angeles, Palm announced a new developer program called the Palm Developer Network (PDN). PDN is designed to support mobile hardware and software developers of products focused on the Palm family of products. It is also the first developer program targeted at developers for both Palm OS and Microsoft Windows Mobile Pocket PC.

This program replaces the successful PluggedIn developer program run by Palm, Inc. and adds several new services for developers such as:

• “Designed for Palm Products” Program – Developers can submit their applications for testing to ensure they pass a suite of compatibility tests. Applications that pass can use the “Designed for Palm Products” logo so customers can be assured the product will work on their Palm devices.

• Comprehensive Knowledge Base – All developers in the PDN will have access to the technical knowledge base that includes the entire support documentation library.

• Palm Select Developer Program – This is a new program for Palm’s top developer partners and offers premium technical, marketing and sales services. Membership includes over 25 members at the launch of the program and is by invitation only and all partner solutions must successfully complete the “Designed for Palm Products” compatibility testing.

• Palm Solution Directory – Solutions that have successfully passed compatibility testing are eligible for promotion through the new PDN Solution Directory (to be launched in late 2006). Palm customers will be able to search the Solution Directory for third-party applications that meet their needs while being assured that all products listed have been tested to ensure compatibility with their Palm device.

The press release was published on mytreo.net this morning. But we also had a chance to talk to Mike Rank, Director of Developer Relations at Palm, Inc. to get the inside story on the new Palm Developer Network program.

MTDN: Mike, tell us about the new Palm Developer Network (PDN) program just announced at CTIA today?

MR: We wanted to refresh and reinvigorate our relationship with the developer community that supports the Palm ecosystem. The new Palm Developer Network program is being launched and will deliver a variety of new technical services and marketing services to our developers and partners who are providing great hardware accessories as well as software applications that run on Palm products. This week at the event we are specifically featuring one of the new services which is the “Designed for Palm Products” compatibility logo program. We have a number of our partners here that have completed the compatibility testing in a beta phase that ended just last week. They are here to talk about their experiences going through the program and each of them has successfully completed the testing and has earned the “Designed for Palm Products” logo which allows them to then leverage the Palm brand as part of their own sales and marketing initiatives. We are very excited about that and we are expecting a great show. There are supposed to be quite a few developers here this week and we are looking forward to introducing the new services and applications to them.

MTDN: How does this new program affect the existing Palm PluggedIn program for developers?

MR: The PDN program will essentially be an upgrade and a refresh of the PluggedIn program. We felt PluggedIn was a successful program for us. Just by the very nature of its name, you can tell that it originally started primarily as a hardware accessory program …”Plugged In”. And as you know, the Smartphone has clearly become more of a software platform. Now we still have hardware partners and we are still doing support of hardware accessories and testing. But we wanted to really upgrade the program to provide more technical services and marketing services that are more relevant to the software developers providing the great applications that run on Palm Smartphones.

MTDN: Will there be a migration for developers in the PluggedIn program to the new Palm Developer Network program?

MR: Absolutely. Everybody who is a current member of PluggedIn will be automatically registered into the new Palm Developer Network. We will be taking new registrations here at the event and have a pod setup where people to join if they want. We will also be allowing developers to sign up for the “Designed for Palm Product” compatibility testing here at the event as well.

MTDN: Are there different levels of membership in the new PDN program?

MR: Yes there are. One of the elements mentioned in the press release is called the Palm Select Developer Program, so let me distinguish that the Designed for Palm Products compatibility program is really about applications and knowing that they run well and are well behaved on a Palm device. It is really about the application earning the logo.

Separate and distinct, we’ve created a tiered program where our top-tier or top business partners are also going to be awarded the Palm Select Developer Program logo. We will be announcing those partners and that program later on in the fourth quarter of this year. We won’t be announcing that here this week or the names of the developers, but that will be coming shortly during the fourth quarter. We are now completing some criteria review and the process by which we will notify our top business partners of the invitations. Like any program, I think there will be a few hundred of our top partners that will become part of the Select Developer Program. We will also continue to have great web-based capabilities for the broader developer community so they have solid technical and marketing support as well.

MTDN: Are there any fees associated with any of the membership levels?

MR: There are no fees associated with the Palm Select Developer Program. That will be by invitation. It will provide premium services to the business partners that we invite but there won’t be an additional fee. For the “Designed for Palm Products” Program, that is run for us by a third party outsource firm so there is nominal fee to complete the testing that basically covers the cost of testing. It is competitive and pretty typical of the price point that you would see in the industry today for either carrier type testing or operating system level testing.

MTDN: And for the basic Palm Developer Network membership, there is no fee for that either?

MR: That’s correct. It is for the entire community and we have a very large and growing community. We hope that this will accelerate that growth while also helping us to deepen our relationship with the developers and partners that are building great software for Palm Smartphones.

MTDN: You mentioned that some products have already completed the beta phase of the “Designed for Palm Products” compatibility testing. How many products have been certified?

MR: We have twelve partners that are here at the event with us that will be showcasing their applications. They have completed the beta test with us on the “Designed for Palm Products” compatibility testing and that program will be going live next week after the show closes. Other developers can go to a web page, register for testing, submit their application for testing and it will undergo the entire process that we beta tested over the last three to four weeks.

MTDN: What about developers getting early access to new hardware before it comes out so they can ensure that their applications will work with the new hardware when it is released?

MR: Yes, that’s something we’ve always supported. That will be targeted at our Select Developers where we have a top business relationship. We typically handle pre-release devices for those top-tier partners. There is non-disclosure obviously associated with that, but we do provide them with those devices. And because that’s a premium opportunity there are also premium support services that go with that, that allow them to contact directly our developer technical services team to help support them as they get their application running in that new environment.

MTDN: What are the differences between the developer programs from Palm and those from PalmSource and do developers need to join both?

MR: They are complimentary and that’s they way we’ve envisioned them. Our program relies on and expects the developers will complete some level of self-testing or self-assessment for PalmSource since that is what PalmSource offers for the PalmOS. Or with Microsoft with their Mobile2Market program, where there is a compatibility test involved. So if you think about the way that people are doing the testing today, there is an operating system level test, but what we are providing is a device-level compatibility test environment. The carriers typically have a network compatibility test that they require. So you are really assuring quality and reliability at different levels with each one of those programs, but they are complimentary to each other. One of the things we tried to do in developing our program is to make sure it is very complimentary and wasn’t a big burden that we were adding to the developers. It is complimentary and very close to what the operating system platform people have been offering and what the carriers have typically been requiring. We think we’ve struck the right balance with the program.

MR: The other thing I can mention is that, related to the “Designed for Palm Products” logo program, we will be launching a Palm Solutions directory in the fourth quarter. The Palm Solutions directory will be a publicly accessible web-based directory where customers will be able to search for great applications that have completed the logo testing program. And that directory will be searchable by device, by application category, or by specific developer. So if a customer is looking for a great sales force automation application they will be able to go to the Solution Directory and it will identify for them partners and developers that have completed compatibility testing that sell an application for that particular category. Now it is a marketing and promotion site only, not an ecommerce site, but we will have the ability to create links to other sites where they can either pickup a trial version, demo version, or actually purchase the application if they want to do that. .

MTDN: The press release mentioned that the Palm Developer Network is for developers of both PalmOS and Windows Mobile devices. Is the release of the Windows Mobile Trēos such as the 700w and 700wx one of the main reasons that Palm created a single program for both devices?

MR: Very much. We found that we have a strong number of developers that are developing for the PalmOS, a very large number for Windows Mobile, and some that develop for both platforms. They were all looking for improved technical services, an ability to query technical challenges they might be running into, and when they completed their enablement they wanted to be able to market to those respective communities and those respective environments. So that’s really what drove the new investment and the design of the new program.

MTDN: Is there anything you can share on the future of Palm or any new Trēos?

MR: We aren’t doing any new product announcements today, just our new program. But what I can tell you is that we are making significant investments in the developer community to position them to go from concept to market very quickly as Palm introduces new devices whether they are on PalmOS or on the Windows Mobile platform. So we want to make it very simple and easy, from concept to market, make it available and have great choices out there for Palm customers in terms of solutions, software and accessories.

MTDN: Most of these changes are focused on the developer community, but how will these changes benefit the consumers?

MR: I think it creates more choice, or that is the way we look at it. I think there are going to be more applications that are available. I think the will be higher quality. I think they will be more reliable because of the compatibility testing that is going on. I think those are great things and Palm is all about choice, it’s about a great experience, it’s about fast, easy and reliable. That’s what we are known for and that’s how we designed the service of this program for our developers.

MTDN: Any final comments?

MR: We are showing off the Designed for Palm Products compatibility program here at the event. But throughout the fourth quarter we will continue to announce other elements of this program that will be going live and will become available to developers. We’ll keep you informed over the fourth quarter as those new services roll out and become live.

Related Links

Palm PluggedIn Program – Provides a collection of tools and resources for developers. This site is hosted by Palm, not PalmSource. This link may change upon the announcement of the new program.

PalmSource, an ACESS Company – Development Tools for PalmOS development.

Windows Mobile Development Center- Windows Mobile Solutions Partner Program

Filed under: Treo and Palm news