The Palm Pre is a very cool and useful smartphone.  It should be a solid contender against the iphone and the upcoming Motorola Cliq, which is due out very soon. 

One thing that could be perceived as holding Palm as a company back is its lack so far of many applications for its users to download.  Apps are a huge sales driver for iPhone and Blackberry smartphones as people are interested in doing all kinds of things on their wireless devices in addition to the basics.

Palm is encouraging developers to build applications for its online stores and hopes to spur more interest in their phones, such as the Palm Pre.  Having a good open platform with developers could be one way to spur more interest in Palm's products.  

The Pre may just be a major contender and more access to apps could bring Palm back to the forefront of the smartphone world. Just maybe.