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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?
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
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,
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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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.
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.
A new palm os,
3com charges twenty bucks,
Bad publicity.