>I saw the new Palm model posting.
The rumor, you mean.
>The change is alarming not because it is different, but rather, the first
>we hear about it is less than one month before the official launch. I
>thought Palm was going to get better about keeping developers informed.
First of all, we don't comment on rumors. Quality of articles on the web
vary wildly, from reasonably accurate to hilariously inaccurate (and those
ones we circulate internally for humor and amazement purposes.) But saying
which was which is never a good idea, since if we were ready to announce
something then we would.
(It is a real learning experience when you work somewhere and have news
media write about you. You'll never read newspapers the same way again,
because you figure if they are so inaccurate about things you know the
facts of, then they're probably just as inaccurate about most everything
else. There's a bunch of truth, of course, but the average truth
percentages are astonishingly worse than you may realize.)
Second, yes, we do keep developers informed, and do so better than before,
and we intend to keep it up (realizing nobody's perfect). But that will
never mean that we tell all, 6 months before something ships. At any given
announcement date there'll always be people saying "you should have told me
earlier". We can't win.
Granted, it is natural that all we ever hear is complaints, and there's no
pleasing everyone. But don't bash us for not commenting on rumors. And
even when the rumors might be true leaks, how are we supposed to know when
the leaks are going to be published anyway?
Our intent is to tell developers of issues that affect them, as early as
possible and appropriate and as makes business sense. But not to share our
product plans from here till 2003, or just satisfy curiosity.
Sheesh, I even saw articles complaining about Apple's new iMac colors, from
people complaining because their interior decorating (picked to match the
old colors) now clashes. They probably wanted to be informed earlier!
Ok, I'm rambling now. It is just that I'm tired of the same accusations
being made each and every time there's any new product or rumor.
-David Fedor
speaking for myself, and I should probably go home for the weekend and relax.
--
For information on using the Palm Developer Forums, or to unsubscribe, please see
http://www.palmos.com/dev/tech/support/forums/
