>IMHO, writing software that works on OS >2.x is still worth the effort. Four years may sound like an eternity to us >software developers, but many consumers use hardware (and software) longer >than we can imagine.
There are certainly a nontrivial number of people using old devices. But percentage-wise, the story might be different. Work you do targetting 2.0 users is most likely only affecting a tiny percentage of your customers, probably on the order of 2%. (Of course different markets will have different user characteristics, but still.) The other question is whether or not someone who hasn't purchased new hardware in 4 years will be the sort of person willing to purchase a bunch of software from you. If you've an ongoing relationship, things could be different, but if not I'd highly recommend that you spend your time on the much larger market that has 3.5 and higher. The economics term is "opportunity cost" - time you spend on the 2.0 users is time you can't spend on the people who have the latest and best stuff and who are probably more willing to spend money on additional software. Our group managed to get our hands on some relative market share percentages, by Palm OS version, which I'll be able to present publicly at PalmSource. (That's where my 2% rough estimate was based upon.) -David Fedor Palm, Inc. -- For information on using the Palm Developer Forums, or to unsubscribe, please see http://www.palmos.com/dev/tech/support/forums/
