After seeing its once strong position in the PDA/smart phone market crumble, a strong launch for the Pre is a must for Palm if it wants to challenge Apple.  Today at San Francisco's Web 2.0 expo, Palm announced an important move to help set up such a launch -- an early release of its "Mojo" software development kit for webOS.

General availability of the Mojo SDK is scheduled for sometime next year, but developers can apply to get an early build.  Michael Abbott, senior vice president, Application Software and Services, Palm, Inc., enthusiastically describes, "Developers are an incredibly important part of the webOS ecosystem, and we’re eager to get the SDK into their hands. Now that the SDK will be available to a broader base of developers, we think the enthusiasm for webOS will only grow and accelerate. We’re very excited to work with developers to make this unique development environment even better.”

At the heart of applications developed in the new SDK will be web-driven languages, such as Javascript, CSS, and HTML.  These languages are deeply integrated into the new OS.  Applications using the SDK will have access to OS related goodies, such as linked contacts, layered calendars, multitasking, notifications and GPS capabilities.  All caching/processing is done natively (locally) and does not have to rely on a server.

Tom Conrad, chief technology officer, Pandora, says that developing for webOS is much easier than many competitors' environments.  He states, "WebOS makes mobile application development incredibly easy – we were able to get a version of Pandora running in no time. And because webOS has true multitasking capabilities, Pandora runs elegantly in the background while you’re using other applications. The unobtrusive notification bar lets you know what’s currently playing, and allows you to pause and play without having to go back into the application. It’s an incredibly powerful and flexible platform."

Fandango is another major player that already has an application up and running.

Palm will also try its hand at its first cloud computing scheme.  Applications will be able to deliver live content via a standards based messaging system called Mojo Messaging Service.  Developers' send updates to the cloud, which are then sent from the cloud to handsets that are subscribed.  This will allow for live content for developers' applications or services.

Pre users will also have access to classic Palm apps via MotionApps, an emulation layer for webOS that runs these older applications.

In all, Palm appears to be aggressively pursuing application development and courting developers.  With RIM, Apple, and Google all having their own application stores and using these stores to push their handsets, having a strong application base at launch is a must.  And it appears that's exactly what Palm is cooking up with its Mojo.