Palm’s new Software Store managed to come out with an attractive offer for its customers, providing more than 5,000 apps and games, which are directly available from the handset.

Google, O2 and T-Mobile all managed to successfully release their own App Stores, looking to cash in on the popular trend started by Apple with its App Store.

Palm’s offer is grouped through the same categories found in Apple’s service, listing Games, Travel, Entertainment, Profession, Personal Productivity, Finance and Accounting, Tools and Productivity, Medical, Free Apps and also Education & Reference.
The company will offer 25 Palm handsets which will be compatible from launch with the Software Store, needing only the installation of the free Software Store tool. As an extra bonus, users get 25 per cent off their first download when using the voucher code 'SHOPMOBILE'.

Looking to cover all of its products and considering the fact that some Palm devices run Windows Mobile, the company opened two stores – one for Windows Mobile Palm phones and the other for the Palm Operating System.

Research in Motion is also planning the release of an Application Center, which is scheduled for March 2009.

This is considered a very good step for the company, as its sales in the past few years have been significantly lower than expected. It still has a long way to go before reaching its competitors, but the move was made in the right direction. By comparison, Apple’s App Store offers twice as many applications, but Palm is new in this segment and its diverse offer, which is very likely to expand with time, should be appreciated.