PC Mag reports that the first must have app for the Palm Pre is MotionApps Classic. The app lets the new Pre run the 30,000 older programs that were written for devices running the old PalmOS platform. The app is said to be a work in progress, but it is a very important app since the Pre will not have a huge developer community at launch.

The app retails for $29.99 and a 7-day free trial is available. As a guy used to $9.99 at the most for an iPhone app, the $29.95 seems very expensive to me. MotionApps Classic emulates a Palm Centro running Palm OS 5.4.9.

PC Mag says to use the app you have to connect your Pre to a computer, choose USB disk mode, and drop the apps PRC files into the ClassicApps folder. Old Palm apps needing a PDB database have to use a third party app to move the PDBs from the virtual memory card to the virtual main memory. The other big rub is that the application doesn’t allow HotSync. Still PC World gives the app 3.5 out of 5.

[via PC Mag]