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> iOS set a huge negative precedence That's unfair. Before iOS you typically had to go to your carrier's app store to download anything. Verizon's policies abo

by eli 11y ago

> iOS set a huge negative precedence That's unfair. Before iOS you typically had to go to your carrier's app store to download anything. Verizon's policies about who gets listed and how much it costs were much worse than iOS.

enjo 11y ago
PalmOS had a wide open app model and it was awesome.
- jshevek 11y ago
  Yes. The iPhone was a huge step backwards in my opinion, but at the time the only people who seemed to understand this were PalmOS users.
  - robotresearcher 11y ago
    And Blackberry users. Blackberry was pretty damn good.
  - Nullabillity 11y ago
    Even S60 had a pretty decent open market.
- Spooky23 11y ago
  Yes, the dozen applications available were great.
  - anonbanker 11y ago
    parent is clearly too young to remember PalmOS.
    - enjo 11y ago
      Nope. I lived it. I joined QuickOffice (now part of Google) in 2002. We built apps exlcusively for PalmOS back in the pilot days. The idea that only a handful of apps existed is nonsense. Handango had a thriving Palm community surrounding it for several years. Palm ultimately failed because the leadership at Palm failed to recognize what they had and simply refused to innovate into the smartphone world until it was far too late. Still they showed that an app marketplace was something peple really wanted. Well before the iOS walled garden.
    - Spooky23 11y ago
      I had a palm III and the handspring palm V, both were gifts and they were ok. Losing everything multiple times when the AAA batteries died was very not fun. I remember a few little games and calculators. Never felt compelled to pay for anything. When I had a palm windows mobile thing circa 2004, that was when I saw the light. As horrible as the platform was, having a browser and google maps on the road was like having superpowers. My wife and I took a 5 week Road trip honeymoon, and basically pricelined our way across the country. Amazing.
- vram22 11y ago
  Yes, when I had a Palm, IIRC I scouted around for apps and there were many, probably not just on a Palm company store, but third-party sites too. I remember one called Pippy, which was a port of Python to the Palm. Used it a bit. But it used to crash somewhat often, so gave up trying to do any real apps with it on the device. A pity. Would have been cool to have custom apps on it, that too done in a productive language like Python, and maybe accessing / controlling the hardware.
ChrisClark 11y ago
Windows Mobile was completely open too. There were several independent stores out there you could buy from.
- eli 11y ago
  Was the WM store really that different from the iOS store? I seem to recall there was a verification and certification process (and it cost a lot more than $99/year)
  - Nullabillity 11y ago
    There was no WM store back then. The store was added in WP7.

by eli 11y ago

enjo 11y ago

PalmOS had a wide open app model and it was awesome.

jshevek 11y ago
Yes. The iPhone was a huge step backwards in my opinion, but at the time the only people who seemed to understand this were PalmOS users.
- robotresearcher 11y ago
  And Blackberry users. Blackberry was pretty damn good.
- Nullabillity 11y ago
  Even S60 had a pretty decent open market.
Spooky23 11y ago
Yes, the dozen applications available were great.
- anonbanker 11y ago
  parent is clearly too young to remember PalmOS.
  - enjo 11y ago
    Nope. I lived it. I joined QuickOffice (now part of Google) in 2002. We built apps exlcusively for PalmOS back in the pilot days. The idea that only a handful of apps existed is nonsense. Handango had a thriving Palm community surrounding it for several years. Palm ultimately failed because the leadership at Palm failed to recognize what they had and simply refused to innovate into the smartphone world until it was far too late. Still they showed that an app marketplace was something peple really wanted. Well before the iOS walled garden.
  - Spooky23 11y ago
    I had a palm III and the handspring palm V, both were gifts and they were ok. Losing everything multiple times when the AAA batteries died was very not fun. I remember a few little games and calculators. Never felt compelled to pay for anything. When I had a palm windows mobile thing circa 2004, that was when I saw the light. As horrible as the platform was, having a browser and google maps on the road was like having superpowers. My wife and I took a 5 week Road trip honeymoon, and basically pricelined our way across the country. Amazing.
vram22 11y ago
Yes, when I had a Palm, IIRC I scouted around for apps and there were many, probably not just on a Palm company store, but third-party sites too. I remember one called Pippy, which was a port of Python to the Palm. Used it a bit. But it used to crash somewhat often, so gave up trying to do any real apps with it on the device. A pity. Would have been cool to have custom apps on it, that too done in a productive language like Python, and maybe accessing / controlling the hardware.

ChrisClark 11y ago

Windows Mobile was completely open too. There were several independent stores out there you could buy from.

eli 11y ago
Was the WM store really that different from the iOS store? I seem to recall there was a verification and certification process (and it cost a lot more than $99/year)
- Nullabillity 11y ago
  There was no WM store back then. The store was added in WP7.