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HP TouchPad has Over 1,000 Optimized Apps Available to it

By: , 10/4/2011 2:21 pm | 29 comments

When the HP TouchPad launched, back on July 1st, it had over 300 TouchPad-optimized applications available in the App Catalog. Today, that number has surpassed the 1,000 mark, a growth of 600-700 apps in just over two months — not too shabby for a ‘dead’ platform, huh? Naturally, this number is not without some apps most wouldn’t use, such as “FartPad,” a farting app for the TouchPad. Furthermore, it took six months to reach the first 1,000 apps on webOS, crossing that mark on January 1st, 2010.

Now, there are some differences. One, for example, being that back then, there wasn’t an established user base. The second being that at that point in time, the developer environment was not as built out as it is today, nor was the App Catalog as open to developers, requiring an annual fee, a per-application submission fee, and sending the app to a reviewer via email. All of those obstacles are gone now, which could be one reason for the growth.

We’re pretty excited to see how many more apps come to our beloved ‘dead’ platform, what with the explosion of TouchPads in the hands of consumers. We’re glad we could be a part of the initial thousand apps for the TouchPad after our launch of webOSroundup XL last month.

All told, we believe this puts the total number of apps in the App Catalog over 10,000, perhaps even up to 12,000, we’re not entirely certain.

[Source: Josh Marinacci on Twitter]

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About Arthur Thornton

Arthur is an 18-year-old webOS fanboy and developer. Arthur's first experience with webOS was in August 2009 when he got a Palm Pre. Since then he's owned many of the webOS phones produced, released several loved apps into the App Catalog, and even held an internship with HP's webOS GBU. Fresh off of that internship, Arthur is back at webOSroundup as a contributor.
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  • Malette

    Hey, I like the fart apps,they keep my son laughing for a while. Anyways other good quality and different games and apps would be neat, but nice to see it growing. I’m not ready to give up hope on webOS yet.

  • http://sorli.com sorli

    Very cool and I haven’t even noticed a fart apps.  :)   I’m very pleased with what webOS and 3.0 has accomplished and after Apple’s lack luster announcement (no iPhone 5) looks like I’m going to continue in “wait and see mode!”  Sorli…

  • Doug

    Seeing as HP just added another 80,000 touchpads (I think that is the number I las heard) to US employees I hope to see the exposure and growth go up soon. WebOS is very nice so far and I certainly don’t want to see it become a truly “dead” platform
    – sent from webOSroundup XL

  • Marvin

    Good news and it’ll only get better
    – sent from webOSroundup XL

  • http://Bungie.net TheKingOfHalo

    Bye webOS. Such a great operating system too bad Sprint and HP wasted it. Oh well, iPhone here I come! Wish I could have stayed but with no new hardware and my almost two year old Pixi dying there’s no way I can remain with webOS. Sprint’s the only network I can afford.

  • http://twitter.com/TeckieGirl S Copeland

    YIPPEEE!!!

  • http://twitter.com/TeckieGirl S Copeland

    GET A PRE 3 ON EBAY!!!

  • Stepwi

    When are HP going to come through on their promise to abolish geo restriction for apps on the Touchpad. I’m in Sweden and can only see free apps.

    • http://www.arthurthornton.net/ Arthur Thornton

      There never was a promise to “abolish geo restriction(s) for apps,” that was a misinterpreted quote, simple as that. What was said was that with the TouchPad, you get to choose your Catalog country.

      • Haze

        Nevertheless it is very stupid. Getting tired of free apps. I will look at nokia n9 with Meego (another dying os) and WP 7.5 Mango. With no tp, no pre3 and no paid apps there is not much left to pray for.

      • Stepwi

        Don’t see how it could be misinterpreted it seemed very clear at the time:
        Http://www.webosroundup.com/2011/05/no-geo-restrictions-on-webos-3-0-apps/

        • http://www.arthurthornton.net/ Arthur Thornton

          I’m not saying you misinterpreted it, I’m saying the people at that event misinterpreted it, as did webOSroundup.

  • Del71

    This is great news, but I’d really like the Kindle app to be made available in the UK. This would be the icing on the cake for me.

    • Chirurgie

      Kindle IS available, I use mine all the time! it’s just obtainable via HomeBrew.

      • Del71

        Are you talking about the Kindle Import App in Preware?

  • Brik

    I hope this trend continues. There are thousands of potential TP owners on the way.
    – sent from webOSroundup XL

  • MPM

    I don’t care if they have a million. WTF good is it with no phones and no nothing!!

  • Icicle1906

    Look HP people want and love webOS!  Give us a Pre3! This thing can still be turned around.  The Iphone 5 never came out too!  This is an opportunity to capitalize!
    – sent from webOSroundup XL

  • PalmOn

    Yeah! Webos is the tops!

  • Pandamonia

    As anyone researched to verify the 1,000 apps claim.  There are 517 “Touchpad” identified apps, and if you add in those that are HD, you still are way short of 1,000.  What gives?

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_2L2YA5F7PWLSPGHPH2UU6KPVEM Scott M

      Yeah – I noticed the same thing. About (520) “For TouchPad” apps as well as about (250) “HD” apps – and some of those are duplicates between the two groups…

      Still, app quantity isn’t the issue. Are the apps that are being released of quality and use. So far, for what I need, yes they are :) Keep it up devs – we luv ya!

    • http://www.arthurthornton.net/ Arthur Thornton

      You can’t find the exact number with total certainty, as searching for “TouchPad” doesn’t actually look at the “For TouchPad” text, only the name and description. Only those on the inside of the company can tell with certainty at this time (and the source is in Developer Relations, so they would know)

  • Aureliogovea

    we need more quality apps numbers don’t matter webOS is making a bad decision on killing it theres nothing close to how good this tops everybody else and I wish you guys would make the pre available to more phone companies that would add more numbers to your fan base I have us cellular and I really want a pre phone

  • http://twitter.com/ApMik Aploe Miktona

    Optimized for the larger screen of the TP, yes.  But I am not sure all of these app are really optimized in the true sense of the word.  Some of these apps are so slow as to make them impossible to use.  HP should not even let them onto the app cat, but obviously there is a QA process that is failing at HP.

    Still, 1000 is a very good number and we can only hope there would be more and more quality apps added to the list.

    • http://www.arthurthornton.net/ Arthur Thornton

      Slowness of an app isn’t a reason to not permit it into the Catalog, ultimately it comes down to whether or not the developer knows what they’re doing about their app.

      • http://twitter.com/ApMik Aploe Miktona

        If the app is slow to the point of being looking frozen all the time, surely it should be a factor.  Slowness is only one of the issues though.  There are apps that plain simply do not work (quitting, freezing the device, etc).  

        Overall I am not really sure how good HP/Palm app QA is.  They don’t just approve, they “promote” plainly malfunctioning apps in the app cat when they know there are serious issues.

  • http://www.nakulgoyal.com Nakul Goyal

    I hope something works out for the PalmOS/WebOS.

  • Sue

    I have a question.  We have tried to use SKYPE on our Touchpad and the video is only opening in part of the page w/a huge black margin at the top and bottom of the picture.  There is no option to enlarge it or remove my outgoing video picture which covers part of the person’s face that I am talking to.  Why are there no options like when you are on a regular computer?  I tried talking to our daughter last nite and my sound would go mute on one side hers or mine w/no one touching anything, then when I touched on settings it opened up a conversation page which covered the entire screen but it didn’t have anyway to minimize this or close it to go back to the video.  We must have had to call and recall 4+ times.  Also I could hear her voice and then in aprox 4 sec lag I would see her mouth move to those words.  She sd my video was coming over voice and picture perfectly.  Each time we had to recall this did not fix itself.  Is there a setting option that I am overlooking?  Thanks for your help.  We are new to the HP Touchpad and just trying to figure everything out.  FB app is nothing like just going into http://www.facebook.com not sure why it would be so diff.  but that is nothing we need addressed at this time.  Just the Skype issues.

  • Sue

    update: I just watched the Skype video which I did not notice was available before I wrote my question about.  It basically answered the majority of my questions except for how to get back to the video if you open the conversation screen.  Also I noticed in the video he used the dial pad icon and it brought up the guy he was calling.  I seem to have to use the Skype list and we had a heck of a time getting rid of the Aim users and just show the Skype contacts even when we unclicked everything in AIM.  Then when he wanted his Aim users to show we unclicked everything in Skype and reclicked offline and online in AIM but never could get the contacts for AIM to show. maybe there is a forum somewhere if no one here has the answer. Thanks again for everyone’s time.