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StyleTap, experts at Palm OS emulation, will look into the possibility of bringing its technology to Palm's recently announced Linux-based webOS platform, according to company co-founder Bob Chew. This would allow folks to run legacy Palm OS software on Palm's new Pre smartphone, something the company doesn't plan on enabling itself.

Speaking with Brighthand, Chew said:

From our initial assessment, the situation would be similar to Android or LiMo. Because these platforms are Linux based, it would be theoretically possible to port StyleTap to run on them. However, in order to integrate StyleTap so that it operated seamlessly with the webOS applications, it would require that webOS/Android/LiMo have at least a limited set C/C++ APIs available that are not currently available in the announced version of the webOS SDK.

Chew recommends folks let Palm know they want Palm OS emulator for webOS. This could give Palm the impetus to - at least - give StyleTap access to the C/C++ APIs required to create one as a third party. StyleTap would also like to gauge interest in a Palm OS emulator for webOS. So let them know if you would buy one if they can get it developed.

Current and former Palm devotees were pretty jazzed up when the PDA pioneer introduced the Palm Pre and, especially, the long-overdue follow up to the Palm OS, webOS at CES last week. To the chagrin of many, however, Palm decided not to include a Palm OS emulator with the new Linux-based platform—although it indicated it would do so during the development process.

Without a Palm OS emulator you won't be able run any of the tens of thousands of Palm OS applications already available on the Palm Pre or any other device that ends up running on webOS. By extension, it also means any current Palm OS-device users who end up buying a Pre will lose their, often significant, software investment.

Of course, the same would be true if they bought an iPhone, the Google Android-run G1, a Windows Mobile (including any of Palm's own Microsoft-based phones), or any Nokia Smartphone. You'd expect Palm to take a different tact with the mobile OS that started the PDA/smartphone revolution and still -- despite gains made by others -- supports more applications than any other platforms. After all, a significant reason why Palm is still around at all is due to those customers who’ve remained loyal to the company all these years.

More on StyleTap

Early last year, StyleTap indicated it was working on an "experimental version" of its Palm OS emulator, called StyleTap CrossPlatform, for the iPhone.

Already available for Windows Mobile - and soon Symbian - the software allow users to run the more than 20,000 available Palm OS applications on the their PDAs and smartphones. While the experiment was successful, a few months later, StyleTap ran into a significant hurdle in getting its software into the hands iPhone owners, Apple.

You see, the legal agreement that accompanies the iPhone Software Development Kit prohibits the entire class of applications StyleTap falls under. These include emulators, virtual machines, scripting languages, and interpreters that enable any type of non-native applications to be run on an iPhone.

In other words, Apple doesn't want folks loading software onto their iPhone it hasn't approved. As a result, StyleTap cannot deliver its Palm OS emulator directly through the App Store to iPhone users.