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I agree; what he wants is a stellar idea and how it should work for definite. The problem is twofold. Firstly Apple. They achieved unbelievable lockin (even a
by ErrantX 17y ago
I agree; what he wants is a stellar idea and how it should work for definite.
The problem is twofold.
Firstly Apple. They achieved unbelievable lockin (even accounting for jailbreaking) with the App Store and are certainly raking in a fortune with it. Im not surprised Palm want a portion of the pie.
Secondly; I bet you the Pre is "sold" at a loss. Because Palm looked at the App Store and thought "hey that is a limitless pot of money, lets do it!". Im sure the Iphone/Ipod Touch is sold for the same sort of "loss" - the profit is from tertiary services (this is a fairly standard model, right).
We already have a dangerous simile for this sort of loss leader system: it's called printed news media. They make money off of advertising revenue and that is falling apart as things evolve.
There will be a revolution in phone software at some point; a time when phone providers finally realise they should open up their phones to other OS's the same way computers are. When that happens these companies are fucked; and I dont think it can be too far away. The number of disgruntled App store devs is growing, Android is increasing in popularity and gaining market traction (though I dont rate any of the production phones yet) and it looks like Palm devs will be joining the pool. That is a dangerous group of people :D
- protomyth 17y agoI am not sure I see the "open" trend. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the future is the integrated hardware / software / store. Look at game consoles, iphone, and palm pre. The "open" computer might actually be a blip in computing history. (Please Note: I am not liking or advocating this trend)
- ErrantX 17y agoI suppose it depends whether a reliable open platform (i.e. Android) gets established and achieves a critical mass of developers behind it. Could happen :)
- protomyth 17y agoMy problem with Android is my general problem with Google. It seems like they are incapable of doing the kind of UI polishing required to have a great consumer product. Given how they have treated some of their UI people, I don't see this changing. You need someone with the authority of a Steve Jobs or Jonathan Ive to do real design. You can't just have pretty icons.
- ErrantX 17y ago110% agree. It's the same gripe I have with Linux too.
- billswift 17y agoI don't like it much either, but it mostly depends on what most customers want, whether there is enough value involved for some players to go for niche (hobbyist &/or programmer) markets, and on how well the closed systems can be made to work together (for example exchanging info between phones and other systems).
- awad 17y agoActually, Apple makes a mint on every iPhone and iTouch (see http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2009/06/iphone_3gs_costs_179_to_build_isuppli.html http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2009/06/iphone_3gs_cost...) to the tune of about 50% of the retail price, or 100% of the manufacturing cost, whatever way you want to look at it. This excludes all research, development, and marketing of course.
- ErrantX 17y agoThat's interesting thanks for that. I do have 2 points though. Firstly that you do really have to include R&D cost - I bet that adds a reasonable amount. Secondly that your using the retail price of the phone; I don't imagine Apple gets that full amount per sale. Plus dont forget upgrades - my upgrade phone [it's coming tomorrow. woo! :)] is costing £50 ($80 ish). However; good link. I stand corrected, sorry.
- bhousel 17y agoWhat he wants is basically what Palm is giving him, except for one point.. The device won't install apps directly off the developer's website - it will only install apps either through the actual app catalog, or through a free link that somehow goes through Palm. However they said that they would provide these links for any app, even without any formal review process. Really, this is a good thing. Why? Because Palm needs to be able to yank an app if it turns out to be malicious. They are doing this to protect their platform, and it's a reasonable security measure.
- icefox 17y agoI don't see any reason why palm couldn't still disable evil apps no matter where they came from.
- bhousel 17y agoWhat if the evil app removes their capability to do so?
- icefox 17y agoIf the app was on the device from the web or from a store it could remove their capability, but if the app is not yet on the device palm can easily upload a list of bad apps to not allow to run. Presumably this is what they would have to do with an existing app store app that went bad as a way to kill the one that have already been installed.
- hippee-lee 17y agoWhat if the list on my phone is out of date?
- icefox 17y agoThen how would having bought it through the store done anything?
- 17y ago