Palm apologizes to JWZ | Hacker News Reader

Palm apologizes to JWZ

benzilla.galbraiths.org

73 pointsjbellis28 comments

"We are sorry that Jamie feels the way he does..."

Classic non-apology.

True, but I doubt anyone really gives a damn about the sincerity of the apology, rather people care about whether Palm will actually fix the issues raised.

The fact they've acknowledged and responded to jwz's post at all is a good sign.

> The fact they've acknowledged and responded to jwz's post at all is a good sign.

Really? Seems far more of a neutral sign considering how much attention his post got.

Agreed, who cares about their word choice. The fact that they've even acknowledged a problem puts makes them much more responsive than most of their competitors.

The fact that a company responds when their reputation is at stake is little more than a confirmation that the company exists :-)

I fail to see what's so difficult about designing an online store for software. It appears to me that all the problems arise because they go to great lengths to take away as many freedoms and responsibilities from users and developers as they possibly can.

I don't question the sincerity of the apology. I question its existence. Where is it?

"We are sorry that Jamie ripped into us in public"

FTFY

I disagree.

"We obviously goofed..." is a fairly clearly expression of fault.

In your quote he's expressing remorse that jwz had given up hope that Palm would remedy the situation but make no mistake about it, they know they screwed up and explicitly say so.

Also folks, it bears mentioning again, this program is still in beta (and not in the Google sense).

They'll figure it out, have some faith.

"...in how we communicated with Jamie" is not an expression of fault in their policy, but rather an acknowledgement that they should have done a better job of explaining their policy.

Right, because the program is a work in progress and the only reason jwz got access is because he is who he is. Then Palm screwed up the communications (taking a long time to respond, making him sign a bunch of papers).

the problem isn't the app store ("the program"), it's that you can't easily download and install random apps. that includes the TOS that says distribution outside the app store is banned without written permission.

That's great and all, but Palm really can't afford situations like this. If they want to be a viable alternative to the iPhone, then they need to not behave like Apple when it comes to App Store crappiness.

Rather than trying to emulate Apple, they need to have a clear difference and pound on it: "Oh, you think the Apple App Store sucks? Check out Palm, we treat you right!"

I imagine that's why they just hired two directors of developer relations.

Except "relation managers" are irrelevant when actions blow goats.

Sending a PR director to a guy whose family you just shot isn't going to help much.

I used to work with the new directors, and they're not the sorts to take a powerless figurehead kind of job, so I'm betting they have the authority to Fix Stuff That Sucks. Time will tell.

Lundin Crast said, "And where is the analysis?"

"That," replied Hardin, "is the interesting thing. The analysis was the most difficult of the three by all odds. When Holk, after two days of steady work, succeeded in eliminating meaningless statements, vague gibberish, useless qualifications - in short, all the goo and dribble - he found he had nothing left. Everything canceled out."

"Lord Dorwin, gentlemen, in five days of discussion didn’t say one damned thing, and said it so you never noticed. There are the assurances you had from your precious Empire."

- Isaac Asimov, "Foundation"

I really like that quote! Ever since I first read that book I always think of that quote when I read similar press releases. I didn't realize that I wasn't the only one!

So did they say - here is how we are going to be:

1. 10 times more open than google in terms of empowering independent developers and the owners of phones.

2. 10 times better in terms of user experience than Apple.

Or did they just say "we are seriously second rate".

So... why should I invest in a platform whose app store is "beta" (which seems to be synonymous with unaccountable in this context) and haven't said when it will be out of "beta"?

Yeah, I was wondering about this too.

Palm seem to have decided they can ape Apple with this - launch the awesome new phone first, come out with a third party developer platform second.

The problems are, of course:

* Apple had Mobile Safari, so you could build iPhone-specific content (with restrictions, but still "iPhone" specific) from day one.

* Apple was there first. They got to take their time to find their strategy. Today, both iPhone & Android platforms have App Stores. Palm needs to compete with that up-front (for both developers & for users.)

... and "brand new platform", "ironing out bugs", "great user experience", yadayadayada. Someone high up decided it wasn't a launch day (or launch quarter, maybe even launch year) priority.

Given the choice between launch without an app store or wait and fall even farther behind, whaddya gonna do.

Sure. My question is, what led to that situation happening in the first place?

Hey, this is the same company that was bragging about their growing marketshare in the PDA market in 2006. That's PDAs, not smartphones.

I'm impressed they made it this far.

Palm of 2006 and Palm of 2009 have hardly more than the name in common.

...poorly

How long before these app store policies start making their way into primary computing devices? It seems like a small jump from an iPhone to an Apple Tablet, and from there the subnotebook space is not too far out of reach.

Now if only Palm could figure out how to offer an option to change your default notification sound to something loud enough to actually hear. It's great the Pre can do e-mail, SMS, multi-task, etc but when it's in my pocket and I can't hear any of the notification sounds so it's useless. It might as well be a late 90's style dumb flip phone at that point.

Don't believe till things really happen.

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