Meet Andrew Munsell: App mogul, Palm webOS fan, teenager

Andrew Munsell, the 15-year-old founder of WizardApps, has been getting quite a bit of attention lately, including coverage from a local TV news station in his home town of Seattle. Why? Because this whiz kid is earning money for college by developing apps for his favorite mobile platform: Palm webOS.

 

“I was immediately hooked. After seeing the Pre's multitasking capabilities and learning that webOS apps were going to be written in HTML and Javascript, I was ecstatic … web development is my thing … Now, I'm completely addicted to the Pre.”

 

Andrew currently has seven webOS apps available in the Palm App Catalog, including Weatherman, Stickyman and QuickClip. When asked if he’s working on any other webOS apps, Andrew says “I've got a few cool ones brewing up my sleeve right now… It's a great operating system.”

 

Andrew’s Palm webOS apps are netting him a few thousand dollars every month toward college. Sure beats the paper route I had as a teen. Good thing too, because with his sights set on medical school, every penny (or grand) helps.

 

Institutions of higher education take note: App development may be the financial aid of the future.

 

Paul Araquistain, Palm PR

Comments

[jj]

Thats nice. PALM stock is at 8 and change this morning.
Palm management better wake up. You’re far too complacent and risk the company either failing, requiring boat loads of more (dilutive) capital, or being forced to sell to the highest bidder.
The launch at Verizon was terrible, with reps in ever store I visited having no knowledge or training in Palm’s product line. This morning 3 analysts acknowledged my research by blaming poor VZ performance for their downgrades of PALM stock.
I’m trying to hang in here, but (a) quality of phones still suck, (b) they need to spread the ecosystem to other phone makers, and (c) Palm management needs to shake things up.

[G-man]

lol JJ... those same "analysts" were probably lurking on precentral.net reading the couple posts from whiners like you

[bayrak]

Merci pour le partage. Félicitations pour un très beau site

[Tommy G]

of all the great screenshots that Palm could use, why do you continue to use the awful orange flower? Is it supposed to be iconic like the apple? I think it is terrible especially when you have hundreds of other phenomenal screens that could be used.

The orange flower must go

[Steven Hillestad]

I love my new palm. Great platform, easy to use...... but just one thing. The calendar. The 7 day view is useless in as much as by the time you are on, say Wednesday, you can only look forward 3 days and you are looking back word 4 days. Google has a forward looking four day view (with the actual details) where you are constantly on the current day and always looking forward three more days. Why can't Palm have a 4 day option exactly like the google calendar has now?

[jj]

you call that "whining"? I love my Pre, I love WebOS, and if it takes me "whining" because I want to see them succeed to instigate some change, so be it.

[G-man]

jj

I just think it is rather funny that some random guy on the internet is telling board members that they need to wake up... I am sure all of Palm's board members and executives are sitting around sleeping and playing Solitaire on their computers.

Whiners like you can make a self fulfilling prophecy by saying the sky is falling because at some point if there are enough of you then it leads others to think the same and possibly contribute to making the situation worse.

Dont get me wrong you can voice your opinion and frustrations all you want but I am free to mock them and laugh at you all I want :-)

In all seriousness you should use your pent up energy to help sharing the experience that webOS brings to people... word of mouth marketing is HUGE as it is a very effective and an inexpensive form of advertising.

[jj]

So, Palm announced this AM that revenue guidance has to be brought down significantly.
Stock has plummeted 17% in response to 6 and change, down from the teens just a couple of weeks ago.
Whats the plan, PALM management? We love your stuff but would like to think you'll be around for awhile... great products don't make up for crappy execution.

(@G-man: maybe if we'd ALL "whined" and prodded the company about the problems and evangelized out there instead of joining the compacency, we wouldn't facing this firm's possible demise.)

[G-man]

Yeah Palm is complacent, again they are likley just going on trips to the beach and playing with their iPhones... man you are not the sharpest tool in the shed.

[Pax]

I'm here because of news reports today that stated - Palm Stock Plummets 19%, etc...

I read some of the previous comments and I agree completely with what JJ is saying.

I don't own a Palm device. I don't even care much for what Palm has to offer nowadays. I do care about Android devices. If there weren't any Android devices around, I would consider an iPhone over a Palm device (and that's saying a lot for me). I would probably consider a Symbian or Blackberry (now that they're getting their act together re: browsing experience) over a Palm.

I used to own a Palm PDA (m105, if I remember correctly), which I thought was a fantastic device. Loved my Palm PDA and really appreciated the company itself for producing such a functional device.

I think Palm needs to start asking itself why users like JJ and myself find it important enough to hijack what is a pretty good PR story (apologies to Andrew Munsell) to "whine" about Palm's current state and the lack of mindshare for what really is a pretty nifty device.

I have no suggestions to offer here though, like many users, I do have plenty of ideas. I just don't think Palm cares enough to listen. They didn't listen when they lost the PDA wars and I really don't think they'll listen to potential customers now.

There is a kind of cold corporate quality to Palm nowadays that simply produces a 'meh' from the great unwashed tech-savvy crowd.

So Palm... when you start asking 'Why...?', I really think you'll begin to turn the corner on this.

Subscribed to this blog anyway to get an idea as to what Palm's long-term plans are, if any.

[minian]

For god's sake push out the 1.4 update with Flash. I abhor Flash and don't care anything about it but it would be the first smart phone to have it and appease the scoundrels who think it's the end all, be all. Market this device for what it is leaps years ahead of the iPhone and cleaner than Android. Open up unpublished API's and get them into the hands of developers. Even with the lack of voice dialing etc it's a great OS. Push the update!

[jj]

now, G-man, did I make this personal? You may not care for my observations but you also don't know whats going on over there. Walk into a Verizon store and tell me what you experience.

[SS]

G-Man:

Palm is definitely complacent. I love my Pre. I waited in line for it overnight. I'm now on my 3rd one because of the crappy build quality and poor Quality Control. No denying that.

I also think they have been very slow in implementing things that users had been asking for for a long time (App Limit anyone?).

That being said, I want Palm to succeed badly, but if they don't come out with a new piece of hardware soon, that is significantly better than Pre/Pixi, Palm will die.

[Tamim]

I have to agree quite a bit with jj. On launch day, I went to TWO verizon stores in Fullerton (southern california) and neither had the Pre in stock. One of the salespeople didn't even know what I was talking about. There were no posters for the Pre. There was NOTHING. Not only that, there was no marketing on Verizon's site about the Pre coming, other than a hidden page that you had to manually type in your browser. That's quite pathetic. Look at how well Apple markets their stuff with hype.

I went to the same two stores the second day of launch and still NOTHING. One of the reps says, "We should get them in 3-5 days". WTH? TERRIBLE. I had to go to a store near my work in Chino to find a store that had them in stock. Even then, the Pre marketing posters were hidden in a little corner while the rest of the store was blazing with DROID promotions left and right.

I love my Palm Pre. I want it to succeed. Maybe the board members ARE playing with their iPhones, just like some Microsoft execs that were caught playing with their iPods instead of Zunes. I used to own multiple Handspring devices (Visor, Prism). And years ago, I could do things on those devices that I still can't do on my Pre (voice recording for starters).

Also, Palm really needs to get the word out to the people. So many people are waiting for the 1.4 update but there has been no official word from Palm other than conjecture. Rumors are abound at precentral and Palm can do something to quell it by at least saying something about the release.

Much like JJ, as I said already, I want Palm to SUCCEED. When my friends see my phone, they ask, "Is that an iPhone" and I say, "No, it's a Palm Pre". And then they usually say, "Oh". They haven't even heard of it and aren't interested in checking it out. I have to force them to take a closer look, at which point they love it. We have a huge hill to climb and they need to get things rolling fast.

[Rackotech]

OK, no WeOS 1.4 again, this sucks!!, we should be the first ones to get it, not in Vietnam (Vietnam guy, nothing personal) . The Sprint's Pre, should be the first ones to get the updates. As we were the first palm supporters, I changed to Sprint because of the Pre, I am happy with Sprint and the Pre, but this 1.4 issue sucks!. Whatever, it will come, when it comes...

[G-man]

You guys are silly, you are calling Palm complacent. I would recommend you read the definition and then ask yourself if you really think Palm is unconcerned and self-satisfied with how things have gone.

They have not gone as well as they had hoped but to think that Palm isnt busting its butt doing all it can with its resources is just plain dumb.

BTW its pretty lame to be derailing this cool story about TIWizard. Couldnt you just head over to Precentral and blow steam off?

[AutosPak]

Palm is awesome, I prefer it any time over iPhone, its like comparing mercedes benz with Corolla:)