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HP just seems incredibly stupid. I mean, they're already $1.2B in on this, and they desperately need apps. Why not spend $50MM, go to a bunch of devs, and com
by earl 15y ago
HP just seems incredibly stupid. I mean, they're already $1.2B in on this, and they desperately need apps. Why not spend $50MM, go to a bunch of devs, and commission apps? Offer aggressive rev sharing and a guaranteed minimum $50K. $50K ea is enough to get some people to build out apps and that gets you a thousand apps. If they have to scrap WebOS an extra 4% and change doesn't really make it that much worse of an investment, while if this works, the upside is huge.
- mgkimsal 15y agoThey could just have gotten an SDK out sooner. That was a huge problem in 2009, and the defense was "we're just little old Palm, we're not big enough to do all that!" (bunk? who knows at that time?). HP, one of the largest companies on the planet, 2 years later, does the same thing - announces product with 6+ months before it's available, with no SDK to develop against for new product. I agree on your notion of payment, but many people would have been happy to do it for $0, but with no SDK, how do you do that? Others would have been happy for 10% of those - $5k to develop some apps, perhaps to some particular requirements from HPalm. Or run an app request forum, set up bounties, let the community vote on them, and pay the winning entries. Yes, in the grand scheme, another few million in developer relations and community building is hardly even a rounding error given what they've put in so far. But hey - why innovate when you can try the same techniques that worked so well 2 years earlier?