I would like to replay to the following:
it has already started - a few developers have contacted me and i am following it up. i do believe (and they do too) that it is possible to setup an ESD site that can cover its hosting costs purely by advertising - in addition, it should be possible to charge 2.39% + 25c for the transaction cost.
and to
PowerbyHand is a holding company who owns PalmGear, smartphone.net and PocketGear and a number of other small publishing sites. These two, in themselves are controlling the ESD margins; as one increases - so does the other. Both of these groups power the online stores of many handheld device manufacturers' websites. Even startup ESD sites are easily being swallowed up by these two, ensuring that there is no competition to lower the ESD margins.
(which appears on the http://www.esd-union.com/ site)
Aaron,
I applaud the idea of establishing a more developer-friendly ESD site. However, considering that the big players have already "swallowed up" start-up ESD sites, what will keep them from swallowing up your new developer-friendly ESD site? Would you be able to resist and offer of hundreds of thousands of dollars to turn your new site over to them and sign an agreement to not compete with them (by creating yet another ESD)? I'm not saying that you and your allies are incapable of holding out, but that it will probably be a strong temptation that you'll need to prepare for, especially if the money is more than you are likely to make with the ESD site or with your own handheld program registrations.
Some suggestions: Make sure you remain privately held and are invulnerable to greedy investors' whims. Make sure you have some policy that states that you will disclose to developers any offers anyone else makes to purchase your site (emphasizing, of course, that you immediately declined the offer and refused to consider it even for a moment.)
Andres Cabezas
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