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Palm mobile apps development easier with Ares SDK

Smartphone manufacturer Palm is working on a new software development kit (SDK) aimed at making it easier for developers to build mobile apps for the Pre and Pixi handsets.

According to reports, the SDK – named Ares – is based entirely on web technologies and will let mobile apps developers pull together various components in Javascript for the smartphones, which both run Palm's webOS system.

The SDK was unveiled at San Francisco's Open Mobile Summit this week, where Palm's representatives explained that much of its interface is drag-and-drop, with no install necessary (in contrast to Palm's Java-based Mojo SDK).

Michael Abbott, Palm's senior vice-president of application software and services, told conference attendees that Ares is set for official launch by the end of 2009, when all developers will be able to submit their mobile apps.

PC World reports that, in a demonstration, a Palm engineer created a search application for the Flickr Web photo site, dragging logos, a search field and button, a list widget and other components onto successive screens of the application using a simulation of the WebOS phone interface.

Ares is expected to work on browsers including Firefox and Safari, but probably not Internet Explorer.