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3Com To Charge $20 For Palm OS 3.5
Alex Bischoff writes: "According to this NY Times Article, 3Com will release Palm OS 3.5 in the fall, but for about $20. 'Mr. Cook said that he had already heard grumbling from some Palm users about the upgrading fee and that some future releases might still be free.' ObCredit: PalmStation." (Free registration, worth every penny.) I wonder if this is a way to sell more (new) Palms?
I do own a palm V and am running there OS 3.3. I think it works fine. What does OS 3.5 have that 3.3 doesn't? If you buy a new Palm will it have OS 3.5 or will it still have 3.3 and will they include an upgrade cupon or something?
Personally I think that this is a result of palm OS being free adn Sony and handspring (to mention a few) coming out with palm devices based on the palm os that are better to some extent than palm, and palm sales are probably not as good as they should be. This may be designed to hurt the competition not so much as the end users. But I wonder if they realize that by doing this who will be the one to get the added charges?
It looks like just another case of some company saying our OS is free and then saying no it is not. The same thing can happen with QT so watch out which verison you use for kde all ;-O
I don't want a lot, I just want it all!
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Only 'flamers' flame!
For reference, I have a TRGPro, so the upgrade was released a while ago for me, and it was free. Although the download is there for non-TRGPros, do not try to use it on a 'normal' Palm - it will not work. Also, the 'register as a developer and you can download it' method has two drawbacks - it only works for US-based developers, and I bet there will be some toughening up on this method when Palm start selling the 3.5 OS.
Paranoia isn't an infectious condition, it's a way of life
The Datebook's new Agenda view combines a view of a day's appointments with the day's ToDo tasks
This has been a feature on DateBk3 for a while, which I highly recommend as a Datebook replacement. (Although it costs $20 alone)
The Alarm dialog now has larger buttons to facilitate finger operation, as well as a "Snooze" button
Another DateBk3 option, along with various snoozes.
The Command bar
Very win, but the same can be accomplished with GoBar ($14)
Tapping the title tab of an application shows the menu bar
Menu Hack ($free)
I started this post as an arguement against the $20 upgrade, but on a little research, I found they're incorporating products (or portions thereof) that together amount to a bit more than $20. I doubt that I'll buy the upgrade anyway.
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"Defenestration" is to throw out of a window; what's a word for throwing 'Windows' out of something?
TRGPro has had PalmOS 3.5.1 on their website free for download, for the last few months. I've been using it since. Love my TRGPro.
One company I dealt with had all their minor upgrades in the form of OS patches, applyable via sets of floppies from a remote machine. The patch could be downloaded from wherever (BBS at first, FTP later), or if you wanted physical media and printed release notes, pay a small sum ($20 was about right) for something physical, either a box of floppies or later, a CD-ROM. There was no qualms about us duplicating patches FOC for customers.
I've not read the link (needs registration), so I've no idea if this is the method proposed by 3Com, but a small administration fee seems plausable,
Shouldn't that be Palm Inc. now? :-)
-Karl
OK, so Palm wants to charge for upgrades. Fair enough.
Now, could someone run down a list of differences between 3.3 and 3.5, for those of us who would like to determine if it's actually worth what they're charging? If it's not worth it, I'll stick with 3.3, thank you very much.
Honestly, I don't like this. PalmOS upgrades have always been free in the past; to delay upgrades for several months and then start charging for them with no warning whatsoever is questionable at best. Further, this isn't about R&D costs; Palm and Palm-related products are so popular they had to have recouped those costs ages ago from the devices they sell that run it (not to mention royalties from other companies who make devices that run the OS; I'll bet they don't have to pay nearly as much per unit).
But, as I said, fair enough that they charge $20 for an upgrade. Provided, of course, that the upgrade's actually worth $20. I'm not yet ruling out that it might be; unlike certain companies based in Redmond that change a couple lines of code and use that to try and justify exorbitant prices for their "upgrades," Palm might actually have a product worth selling. We'll have to wait and see.
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The Visor is neat, but don't think you can sidestep the upgrading problem by going to a device that can't be upgraded at the ROM level. All this means is that you won't even have the option to upgrade to OS 3.5. Oh well.
For more information, click here.
about the only recently sold palm that it wont work with is the palm 3e which doesnt have the ability to upgrade its os. I believe it uses normal rom instead of eeproms but i'm not exactly sure.
"My head hurts, My feet stink, and I dont love Jesus." -Jimmy Buffett
Why would Palm alienate their consumer?
Well, for one thing, their major revenue growth and projected area for most earnings is licensing. You get licensing revenues when you do an upgrade. This is where Bill G makes all the bucks. But, as compared to MSFT, Palm actually gives you new features (if you didn't buy a recent model) and it's a lot less buggy.
Secondly, remember that Palm is now separate from 3Com, and so they need to think about what works for them.
[caveat - I own Palm (at IPO) and some MSFT shares]
Will in Seattle
Bad PR Move. And consumers are fickle creatures. They've just gambled their progression to industry dominance a bit pre-maturely. I'm already pretty pissed off with them since I can't upgrade PalmOS from Linux (No windows on the system.) Think next time I'm in the market, I'll check out one of the new Linix based PDA's.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
"Sometimes it will make sense to charge for an upgrade,"
Hmm.. I wonder if it's a case of it makes sense to charge for this update, as they have the 'internet kit' that includes this update for 'free'.
This sounds like a bit of a scam that says for $20 you get an update to your OS that gives you a little extra, when, for just a few dollars more, you can have the whole 'internet kit'. The amount of pressure on people to buy the internet kit is now very heavy if they wish to upgrade their machine at all..
I think this is a case of the beancounters getting a little greedy...
Bad form guys, bad form.
Malk.
Charging for it is fine, releasing it for free is fine. But if you promise customers one thing, don't change your mind all of a sudden and leave them out in the cold. That's just going to alienate customers, and blathering about "we think we have added a lot more value" won't help you.
TO BUY A NEW CAR WOULD MAKE YOU SEXUALLY ATTRACTIVE.
Even though 3Com are charging for the upgrade, how many people will actually take the upgrade. A consumer device's identity is more to do with the hardware, rather than the software it's running. I mean, hey sure you and I may upgrade, but the average middle manager who likes to play with it on the train is hardly a likely candidate.
-- Hob - Java Spectrum Emulator
Heavens forfend that customers express an opinion on whether or not the product being sold is worth the price charged.
Heavens forfend that customers develop expectations based on a company's past behavior, and express surprise and disappointment when those expectations are not met.
Got Rhinos?
It's the same version. All Palm V's, Vx's, IIIxe's, and IIIc's being sold come with OS 3.5 preinstalled. This upgrade is targeted towards users like myself with older, but still flash-upgradeable, models.
For more information, click here.
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"I personal[ly] think Unix is "superior" because on LSD it tastes like Blue." -- jbarnett
...just replace the "www" with "partners" in the URL.
http://www.nytimes.com/200 0/09/14/technology/14GEE2.html
- Armage Bedar
The STATS Man
I'm *still* waiting for a fix for the well known last-line-of-a-memo bug.
Thad
Thad
How quickly we forget. . .
Up until the most recent crop of Palm devices, no PalmOS based system had Flash ROM yet you were still able to update the PalmOS. It was merely a patch that was one hard reset away from being wiped from your system, not a permanent update like the Flash ROM upgrades of today.
Free Mac Mini. Yes, I'm
http://www.palmos.com/dev/tech/docs/p almos35/
Some of the more "significant" changes that Palm touts include:
Personally, I don't think that it's worth a $20 upgrade. Not only are the changes minor, but from all indications I've seen, 3.5 is SLOWER.
Consider that Palm is one of the few vendors out there that has totally blown Microsoft away.
Consider that most Palm owners are loaded with either corporate expense report money or spare cash, already having paid up to $450 to replace their $20 DayTimer.
Consider that most Palms will do exactly what their owners want *without* the upgrade, and that's what they paid big money for.
I just can't find any outrage here.
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As a developer for PalmOS, this move by Palm concerns me and brings up a many questions:
Why would Palm alienate their own consumer?
That's certainly what they are doing. They possess control of the PDA industry and are losing market share to Microsoft, Handspring, and others. Charging for upgrades will only aggravate the consumer. Why run this risk of dropping market share at a more rapid rate?
What business model are they following?
Microsoft charges for upgrades, but they don't sell the hardware. Apple is one company that comes to mind who makes the hardware and sells their own operating system, but they certainly don't charge for small revisions.
Are they stomping out competition?
Since Handspring and others have licensed the PalmOS are they going to pass these fees on to Handspring and force the rise in price on these products? Maybe that's how they can cause a shakeout in the PDA market. I think this will be bad for all PalmOS devices.
Are they just milking customers?
I assume that the flashable ROM in a true Palm device costs more, are they going to drop costs on the Palm itself making it more competitive and then recoup the costs of the flashable ROM via software upgrades?
Mostly, I hope Palm has thought this out very well, before blithely setting a new standard and business model. Claiming that the minimal improvements they have made are a major revision and charging for it is a thin excuse. The $20 fee is so minimal that it could be compared to standard shareware, and if that's the model that Palm is trying to emulate, then all upgrades should be free.
Jayson Pifer
Never go to sea with two chronometers; take one or three.
All CURRENT above listed models. I have a first generation Vx, and it's got OS 3.3 on it.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
1. Obtain the OS 3.5 ROM. I signed the NDA to become a Palm developer, then downloaded it from palmos.com. Try it. It's worth it.
2. Backup your Palm with a HotSync, preferrably after running BackupAll or BackUpBitster to set all your backup bits to "on" and tagging every database to "dirty".
3. Use the OS Upgrade Utility tool to update to the new OS.
4. HotSync to restore your old databases.
It's simple, it takes less than an hour, and it's totally free and legal, as long as you legally own the ROM.
A new palm os,
3com charges twenty bucks,
Bad publicity.