I need to throw in my 2 cents again.
At 04:56 PM 8/7/00 -0400, you wrote:
>On Mon, 7 Aug 2000, Bradly J. Barton wrote:
>> <rant>
>> I hate being made to look uninformed in front of customers. I provide
custom
>> software solutions to them and they look to me to be the expert on all
>> things Palm. When they show me the ZDNet article and ask if I know any
more,
>> I'm left looking like just some pretender off the street. Help us out here,
>> Palm. Even us software folks need to know these things so we can inform our
>> customers. David - you said before you get asked what the developers want,
>> feel free to copy this to those higher ups. Feel free to include my phone
>> number as well, I'd love to discuss the lack of information from Palm.
>> </rant>
>
>If you were a PC software vendor, would your customers expect you to know
>all the details of Intel's newest chip? If you were an auto salesman, do
>you think it's reasonable to think that they would know all the specifics
>of a new line before it was announced? How about a biotech company?
This is the incorrect analysis. First Intel and MS both heavily publicize
new products prior to release. MS releases tons of betas along the way so
developers are well informed. While it is true that Intel or say Compact
don't send out their complete info prior to the devices getting released,
they offer a guaranteed platform on which to build. Intel promise you code
will work on their new chips. Compaq implicitly promises that you hardware
attachments will work with their machine.
This latest release to me is equivalent of the PC manufacturers getting
together and deciding to change the serial port design on all their new
machines. They tell no one, other than a few favored developers, and
basically say the rest of don't need to know.
In my opinion Handspring has now made such a contract with developers. If
they change the design with out informing the development community I think
it will cause severe damage to their reputation. I agree Palm has not
necessarily made such a commitment, but I feel less and less inclined to
support Palm, when iPaq and Handspring offer standardized hardware
architectures.
>
>I guess I don't understand why people expect Palm to release internal
>information to *anyone*. If you're a developer, why should you get any
>special treatment? I think Palm has done a large part for developers on
>stuff that *matters*, like pre-releasing color debug ROMs, etc for us to
>test on. They certainly help us out, when it matters.
I agree on the software side they have done a good job. My complaint is
changes in hardware and no way to know when units are being phased out or
the prices getting cut. (For example Intel does these changes once a
quarter and they are very predictable).
>
>What do these new devices mean to developers? Nothing, nada, zip, zilch,
>zero. They still have the same OS, same RAM, same buttons, same graffiti.
>It's mostly a new case.
Ahha how do you attach hardware to the new case? That is the point. It
does make a difference to hardware developers. A BIG difference.
>
>The only way that you would look like a fool to your customers is by not
>handling the situation correctly.
> "Hey Mr. Palm Developer, what do you know about the new devices?"
> "Well, not much, because they haven't been released yet."
>If this type of a dialog bothers you, and makes you think you're being
>made a fool of, I think you need to work on saying, "I don't know". (I'm
>amazed at how many techie people can't admit they don't know something).
>Don't blame Palm for it.
>
>--
>Brian Mathis
>Direct Edge
>http://www.directedge.com
>
>
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