<Although this topic is getting a bit far from
Palm development, I believe that we need to pay
attention to this more than the latest tool or
bug!>
First, has anybody written back to handspring in
response to this newsletter? I believe that the
third party developers are a critical resource for
Palm and their licensees and Handspring needs to
support our efforts. If they feel that we are
doing a bad job, i.e. producing code that drains
the batteries, then they should be on this forum
showing us how and why that is the case.
Otherwise I think they are just blaming us for
poor hardware design. I don't have any evidence
either way - are Handsprings known for short
battery life?
Gary Gorseline worried:
Also, with PalmSource's new and recent
licensing agreements
and in some cases, lack of renewal of certain
license
agreements, gives me (personally) the
impression that they
are not considering the developers as a
necessary part of
their success. Look at the Zire and when
China comes out
with units under $50, how important is the
developer segment
to PalmSource, Palm or the licensees?
I'm not sure I would interpret this news as
necessarily dire. If I interpret your message
correctly, I think that you're worried that the
users of low priced Zires won't want to buy
business applications. Perhaps this may be the
case, but take a look at the PC market: I just
bought a new Dell desktop for $370 ("Open Box"
deal) and I will add software to it. Given that
backdrop, I think that even $50 Zires will still
want new applications.
The $50 Zire will change the applications that we
build. The market will be different and need
different things. I'd invest in Ardiri.com if he
started charging for games. There are other
segments that could really make it when the
community of users is huge, but I'll start taking
food from my kids mouths if I say any more.
Andy Huang
<ps: I'm reading digests only so I'm sluggardly
responsive>
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