CTIA Palm update: No walled garden here

With all the new phones announced, revamped OS displays and carriers getting nutty, let’s look at where Palm stands today. This past week, two developments are changing how the world sees webOS and just how soon we’ll see its second device. Things are starting to move quickly for the little engine that could.

Palm announced it would be open. Giving developers almost run of the joint, Palm decided it would be the un-Apple. Forget the walled garden, Palm is as free as a flasher in the park. Developers can choose how much help they want in promoting their app.

Developers that choose to use the open source code and distribute the app themselves are free to do so with no charges. Or developers can pay to use the non-open code. If developers want to get the app in Palm’s App Catalog, Palm charges $50 per app to do so. On the whole, this is pretty cool as it frees developers and users from the walled garden approach.

The downside is things may start to get blurry fast. A powerful player for Apple is all the apps in one spot. Palm has always been quirky with apps here and apps there, things could head down the same path, but for the masses, the Palm App Catalog may be all they need. The choice is there and that plays a big role.

Another bit of news is on the diminutive Palm Pixi. Another siting of the GSM model came to light, this time in Vietnam. The one leaked is a 4GB GSM version not like the 8GB that Sprint is expecting which is a little odd, but preproductions usually are.

Will Palm’s move to keep the phone open pay off? Will Apple’s closed loop change under pressure?

Read: [Palm Developer Network Blog]