I am surprized that more developers are not excited about webos. It frees developers from the App store hindrances. What's really needed is a web app to allow app developers to buy/sell/upgrade app licenses. (If the assumption is that not all app developers are interested in maintaining e-commerce infrastructure)
Also, from a users POV, I found the webos interface to be better than iphone or andriod. IMO, its more than an iterative step in interface design.
I think people are just very skeptical about Palm's future. They've been slow to fix some of WebOS's biggest shortcomings and for some odd reason they decided to release a slower more limited WebOS device out before bringing the Pre to GSM or Verizon. What Palm really needs is a higher end WebOS device -- something with more than 8GB of non-expandable storage and perhaps a larger touchscreen model with no physical keyboard. At that point they'd be in good shape to compete with Android & iPhone. Otherwise they're just another "also ran"
I like everything they're doing; I just don't trust their capability to win enough market share to make developing on their platform meaningful. Plus, I don't own one so I wouldn't dogfood.
On the other hand, while there are fewer WebOS devices out there, there's a massive shortage of Palm apps. You could make an extremely sound business porting successful iPhone apps to the Pre. You'd have huge mindshare if you launched there, first, too.
All in all, working on the development environment is a great play by palm.
I'm excited by the ideas and approach of Palm, but their phone bores me. When I hold it I don't feel like I'm holding something substantial -- a sensation the iPhone does give me.
To the mysterious downmodder: according to Gartner, WebOS has 0.2% of the smartphone OS market. Nobody runs WebOS. Writing for it is a waste of time unless you think that will change.
Seems to me that possibly webOS is the superior technology that is almost destined to fail to slightly worse technology like the apple app store etc...
Also, from a users POV, I found the webos interface to be better than iphone or andriod. IMO, its more than an iterative step in interface design.