Granted this is just a rumor and it might be very inaccute. But it does
not make independent developers feel any better. I am certainly not asking
for 3 year advanced look at what Palm is doing, but if this were to happen
in one month as the article says, it would be a nasty shock.
I guess here is my problem. I plan promotions and marketing often 3-4
months ahead. If I can suddenly no longer buy the model I was intending to
use for the promotion because it has disappeared, and I have to eat $100
more per unit on the IIIxe, it is a little hard to go home and relax on the
weekend.
The Palm IIIe shortage really hurt, since I had promotions running, and I
had to buy them where I could find them for up to $200 a piece, and I was
already giving a $100 discount of my product with a IIIe. I might have
been better informed of this, if I was allowed to buy through wholesale
source, but I am not. Hence I have to buy retail which leads to poor
future intelligence. Planning a promotion around a unit that might no
longer exist is really not a swell idea.
It all comes down to this. I am not really interested in new products
(well I am but I can be suprised by those), I am interested in knowing if
old products are about to disappear.
Oliver
At 03:14 PM 7/21/00 -0700, you wrote:
>>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/
>
--
For information on using the Palm Developer Forums, or to unsubscribe, please see
http://www.palmos.com/dev/tech/support/forums/
