I understand, but there are several points: 1. I don't think Palm was selling enough Tungsten models for it to be a profitable business, and it certainly was dwindling. They are not the first to exit the low-end PDA market, just the biggest.
2. For the first 5 years of their existence they were the best company in the world in courting a wide variety of developers of all sizes. I have lots of fond memories of the developer conferences and still have a few mementos around. They made lots of individual developers a lot of money, and provided the launch pad for many companies. But the market changed, and they changed with it. 3. The growth in the market is in wide-area wireless devices, and you have to respect a company that has the guts to suck it up and rethink the whole product model. 4. Small business developers like ourselves are just not the market that can drive decisions in a company the size of Palm. 5. You do have alternative, in niche hardware companies like Janam and Aceda. And I would bet that the ruggedized models that these guys sell would be a good fit in restaurants. Janam acknowledged the business opportunity several months ago when they decided to lower their price point by offering models without a scanner. They are also very developer-friendly, because they know that vertical solutions are important to their business model. I also have developed for Palm since the beginning, and always worked in niche markets with vertical applications. I'm disappointed in Palm's decision, but not really surprised by it. And since I learned of the decision I have focused my energies on developing short and long-term strategies to deal with the change. Help all the guys deal with the changes, not by wasting energy on something that cannot be controlled, but by defining and showing the new opportunities. ____________________________________________ Lee Church www.mobitechsystems.com From: luis maldonado [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 5:06 PM To: Palm Developer Forum Subject: RE: webOS SDK Lee, What I mean by ARRORGANCE is the fact that we who have been developing for the palm platform since they came out with the first pilot have been COMPLETLY IGNORED. Technology comes and goes, and I also go back to the keypunch days and sill have a box of 80 column cards in my office to remind how far we have matured in the technology field. I have a product which was doing well with the TX in the restaurant business and was hoping there would an extension or hand of in their handeld devices to some other company willing to create the NON-PHONE devices as there is a business in that area. At least Apple in THEIR ARRORGANCE can see that there are applications where the phone is NOT an ISSUE and they came out with the iTouch. NOW I'm force to go that route because the TX is no longer available.... Such is life.... Luis, > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > Subject: RE: webOS SDK > Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 11:22:53 -0500 > > I was around when the original Palm Pilot was introduced, and my memory > (fallible, I'll admit) is that the development kit was not distributed until > about 3 months after the device hit store shelves. And when we tried to use > that first version it was far from perfect. The Pre hit shelves when, two > weeks ago? I don't think it is arrogance to take your time to get something > stable and usable out the door. > > Besides, I think you're really still upset about is the new OS and the > changes needed. But bear in mind that: 1. the Palm OS is 12 years old in > the market and probably 14 in terms of engineering, and 2. the features and > functions on the newest devices are light-years over what the first Palm > devices offered. It's not arrogance to reinvent yourself when you've milked > a product line for 12 years and you need to make radical changes to avoid > collapse in the market; that's good business sense. I started with IBM when > their mainstream business was selling typewriters; look at what they are > today. > > ____________________________________________ > Lee Church > www.mobitechsystems.com > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ryan Rix [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 10:39 AM > To: Palm Developer Forum > Subject: Re: webOS SDK > > Philip Sheard wrote: > > And I remember having to sign umpteen forms in triplicate, in order to get > a > > glimpse of the source code for Palm OS 3.5. > > > > Because OS source code == sdk. > > Ryan > > > > -- > For information on using the ACCESS Developer Forums, or to unsubscribe, > please see http://www.access-company.com/developers/forums/ > > > -- > For information on using the ACCESS Developer Forums, or to unsubscribe, please see http://www.access-company.com/developers/forums/ _____ Windows LiveT SkyDriveT: Get 25 GB of free online storage. Get it on your BlackBerry or iPhone. <http://windowslive.com/online/skydrive?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_SD_25GB_062009> -- For information on using the ACCESS Developer Forums, or to unsubscribe, please see http://www.access-company.com/developers/forums/ -- For information on using the ACCESS Developer Forums, or to unsubscribe, please see http://www.access-company.com/developers/forums/
