Since HP acquired Palm, development on the platform has been relatively quiet as of late. Sure, they’re releasing the Pre 2 on Verizon and HP has discussed releasing a tablet that runs webOS, but the marketplace for Palm is a ghost town compared to its two main competitors.

Ars Technica recently published an article outlining some of the upcoming changes we can expect in HP’s new webOS SDK (named Enyo).

Specifically, one quote got me thinking:

This opens the door to a range of new webOS devices. Current webOS smartphones have a 320×480 screen resolution, and Mojo applications are all designed for that resolution. Enyo will enable both higher resolutions—such as are found on many competing smartphones—and different aspect ratios. This will allow webOS to be used on more than just smartphones: tablet form factors will also be an option.

Personally, I think webOS is a great operating system and I think that allowing developers to build their applications using web technologies versus any other language is a huge plus, but I often wonder about their approach regarding developer tools and expanding their hardware.

It’s somewhat of a conundrum. HP can provide us with the sweetest set of developer tools available, but if there’s no real audience, what motivation to do we have to target the platform? Conversely, how much time should a company focus on developer tools when adoption of the device is less than stellar?

Despite the fact that the Pre and the Pixi have done fairly well in the market, I can speak from personal experience that the apps available for the devices simply do not compare to what’s available for iDevices.

As nice as the platform is and as much as I applaud the company for being extremely developer-friendly, I’m skeptical as to how successful the tablets and new SDK are going to be. The thing is, I’m not certain what would make the platform more appealing.

Thoughts?