The problem most developers have is not whether or not an app is good enough (though there is that).
The main problem is getting attention.
There are over 300,000 apps in Apple’s App Store. How do you attract attention in that crowd?
You don’t even try.
1) Develop for webOS.
2) Gain attention for having a damn great webOS app.
3) People using iOS and Android will hear about it.
4) They’ll ask you to develop iOS and Android versions too.
Your marketing budget is reduced because webOS exposure did it for you. Your app has been proven to work, to be needed, and to sell. Demand has been created for iOS and Android while you were making money via webOS.
What’s not to like about any of this?
Another plus for developing for webOS: Unlike Android, you have one OS version to target with known hardware profiles. No having to figure out if potential customers have 1.x, 2.x or 3.x.
In addition, webOS customers will love you for giving them something no one else has. Your company will be established as a premier webOS developer and your customers will remain loyal.
And as you move out into iOS and Android, those webOS users will tell their friends too.
Lastly, don’t you think HP/Palm is bound to promote applications that show off its tablets in the best light? Apple did that in its iPhone TV commercials and print ads.
So, if I had an app that I wanted to sell today, an app that no one else has done, I’d skip iOS and Android and go straight for webOS.
And that’s what I think the smartest developers will do.
Mike Cane’s xBlog 
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Yup that’s the way it works.
In 1984 my company shipped a Mac product. We were one of the very first to ship. Huge amounts of publicity. We also had an IBM PC product and an Apple II product that were not getting much attention.
A year later we had zero Mac sales but our other business had grown hugely. The Mac was slow to take off, but the PC and Apple II were already out there in sizable installed bases.
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“3) People using iOS and Android will hear about it.”
Off who? This would require a critical mass of users so that there were actually people available to discuss the apps. I’ve never seen a WebOS device in the wild, not one.
So this strategy is dependent on people actually buying these devices in large numbers. Now you could say that’s certain because HP is now behind Palm but Microsoft have just spend $500 million on promotional activities to limited impact so this could go the same way.
MS is a different thing altogether. They’ve burned people for too many years. The Palm perception is that the Pre/Pixi hardware was just bad but the software is otherwise good and will shine on good tablet hardware. MS couldn’t get traction on ice even if it was completely covered in salt. Plus, many people just got shafted by cheap Android tablets over the holidays. I don’t think many of them will look to buy another Android tablet any time soon.
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