Palm puts webOS development tools on the web

Palm knows that today one of the key items that help users decide between smartphones is the number and quality of apps available for the device. With many developers focusing more on the iPhone than any other device for application development, Palm needs to lure those developers to build for its new webOS devices.

One way to do this is to make the development environment for webOS devices easily accessed and easy to use. Palm announced today that it has not put the complete mobile development application online for devs to try out.

The development app is available now at ares.palm.com and is the first completely integrated set of mobile development tools to be hosted completely within the browser. The app uses a drag and drop user interface and lowers the barrier for entry into app development for those who have not developed web apps before. The development interface is called Areas and is in public beta.