webOS has been receiving a lot of praise from most people due to it’s impressive design.  Everything has a cost and to make webOS so attractive they had to drop compatibility for legacy applications.  This was upsetting to many Palm enthusiasts as many either have applications they use, love and or purchased.  The lack of support for legacy applications has been one of the only criticisms that Palm has received regarding the new OS but even that one criticism could be gone very soon.

StyleTap currently develops a unique product that allows Palm applications to run on Windows Mobile and Symbian devices by emulating the Palm OS environment.  Since the announcement of webOS StyleTap has expressed interest in developing an emulator to allow these legacy applications to work under the new OS.

From the StyleTap blog:

Since Palm’s announcement of the Palm Pre and webOS, we have received many emails asking (and some begging) us to create a version of StyleTap for this new platform.

From Palm’s initial public statements about the application interface, it seems unlikely that we would be able to create a version of StyleTap without some assistance from Palm to provide access to the C/C++ level of APIs we would need. However, until we see what actually gets shipped to customers, it’s still too early to tell what level of APIs are going to be available.

While we continue to investigate the technical feasibility, we’re also assessing if there will be an appropriate business case for creating a product. If you are interested in seeing a version of StyleTap for the Palm Pre, please let us know with a quick email to [email protected], but also let Palm know that you want to have your PalmOS apps running on this new device.

While yes they will need Palm’s assistance it is highly doubtful that Palm would refuse at this time.

Check It Out> StyleTap Blog via Brighthand