09-03-2003, 08:00 PM
|
|
Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
|
|
PalmGear Acquires Palm Digital Media from PalmSource
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/030903/sfw062_1.html
"PalmSource, Inc., provider of the popular Palm OS� operating system for handhelds and smart phones and a subsidiary of Palm, Inc. and PalmGear, Inc., the world's largest and longest running Palm OS-based consumer marketplace, today announced a strategic alliance designed to bolster the success of the Palm Economy. As part of the alliance, PalmGear acquired PalmSource's subsidiary Palm Digital Media, and will power a new PalmSource online store and license the "PalmGear," "Palm Digital Media" and "Palm Reader" brands." (Emphasis added)
Palm Digital Media was formed in 2000 when PalmOne, the PDA manufacturer formerly known as "Palm", aquired Peanut Press, which was later transferred to PalmSource in 2003. PalmSource is still part of Palm but will be spun off when the Palm-Handspring merger is completed this fall. That will leave PalmSource to work solely on the PalmOS and related products getting out of the publishing business.
I know the first thing you are thinking if you are a Palm Reader nut like I am is "What is going to happen to Palm Reader for the Pocket PC?" Well, I don't know, but if I had to guess, nothing, they will continue developing it. Business is business and PalmGear will be anxious to maintain their sales in ebooks and you can't do that by cutting off non-Palm clients. I understand the code for Palm Reader between the Mac, Pocket PC and Windows desktop is very similar so the cost to get that market is relatively small. Furthermore, PalmGear knows how to do one thing and one thing well - sell to consumers! PalmOne and PalmSource know how to market, but their sales focus was to large companies to then resale to consumers - PalmSource even more so. It seems they want to focus on the OS development and not get bogged down in dealing with publishers, authors and one-on-one customer support. For those of you still worried, consider this: If anyone was going to drop non-Palm clients, it would have been Palm itself. Instead, Palm Reader development surged during the Palm ownership days for all clients. The Pocket PC client is currently one of the best ebook readers around on any platform. Pocket PCs are by some reports making up over a third of the PDA sales market. They won't drop that.
Just browsing through PalmGear's site shows that it is consumer oriented. Several things I've wanted Palm Digital Media to incorporate are user reviews of books, similar to what Amazon does. PalmGear does that. Hopefully, they will begin to integrate that technology into Palm Digital Media's site. Having said that, there is a discussion in this thread at PalmInfoCenter that calls some past practices by PalmGear into question. Let us hope those days are past. 8O
Update: I have since talked to a few people at PalmGear and have some updated information. You can read about it in this post within the discussion thread.
|
| |
|
|
|
09-03-2003, 08:16 PM
|
|
Mystic
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 1,911
|
|
I am going to link to the previous thread so that past comments can be read.
I just signed in to PalmDigitalMedia. Some on the logos have been changed but some are still the old one.
|
| |
|
|
|
09-03-2003, 08:20 PM
|
|
Sage
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 779
|
|
I also just filled in their "contact us" form to say that I hope they keep the PPC reader; I'm not sure if inundating them with requests will help, but it shouldn't hurt.
|
| |
|
|
|
09-03-2003, 08:31 PM
|
|
Pontificator
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,213
|
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by dean_shan
... Some on the logos have been changed but some are still the old one.
|
The stupid PalmGear logo in the upper-right corner of the pages causes some pages to be too wide for even a maximized browser window at 1024x768. Guess they've gotta get their branding in as many places as possible, though. :roll:
I just downloaded all my past purchases and a copy of the current Palm Reader software for PC and Pocket PC in case they change something in the future. (By the way, Palm Reader v1.3.2 for Pocket PC is very nice. The new file open dialog that was added in v1.3.0 is much nicer than the annoying tree listing they had in previous versions.)
I just hope this change doesn't mean a change in customer support. Every time I've contacted them about something, I received a personal, non-boilerplate reply within just a couple hours. Even reporting typos in an e-book so they could be revised was simple.
-- Dave
__________________
Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually) unnecessary.
|
| |
|
|
|
09-03-2003, 09:12 PM
|
|
Theorist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 287
|
|
EVERYONE here should go and download uBook reader!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.gowerpoint.com/
I read a LOT of ebooks and have been using the Palm Reader for a long time. I can't stand how long MS Reader takes to load!
For about the last 3 weeks I have been using the uBook Reader and it is FANTASTIC!!! It loads quickly and can read pdb, prc, txt, rtf and html files.
The "parser" is really slick. With txt files the formating can be screwed up but with uBook you can get it to string lines together that start and stop with lower case letters.
Give it a go. If you are serious about ebooks you'll love it!
Darren
|
| |
|
|
|
09-03-2003, 09:16 PM
|
|
Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
|
|
Update: I just talked to Dave Bartels, the Marketing Manager at PalmGear. Turns out these guys are in Franklin, Tennessee, just a few miles from my house.
I asked him a few questions and this is what I got back:
� Existing user libraries in your Palm Digital Media account will be unaffected. These should carry forward just as they did when they went from Peanut Press to Palm Digitial Media. Good news.
� "There are no plans to change any of Palm Digital Media's current product offerings." Direct quote, which basically means that non-PalmOS products like the Pocket PC, Mac and PC versions of the Palm Reader product should continue just as before. :way to go: I've actually since talked to another highly placed PalmGear executive and he confirmed that information.
So, hopefully this is going to be a win for all users if some of the existing PalmGear site tech gets integrated into the ebook side of the business.
|
| |
|
|
|
09-03-2003, 09:21 PM
|
|
Intellectual
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 139
|
|
Indeed PalmGear has a rather dubious past, and from what I understand is still behind in payments to developers for software they've already sold.
Where did they get the money to buy Palm Digital Media when they can't even pay their developers their commissions?
Also I wouldn't be surprised if they dumped PPC development soon after the dust settles on this deal.
Something seems fishy here, like Palm gave PalmGear some sweetheart deal to keep them above water.
__________________
Wes SalmonSoftware Test EngineerMicrosoft Mobile and Embedded Devices
|
| |
|
|
|
09-03-2003, 09:25 PM
|
|
Mystic
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 1,911
|
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Ed Hansberry
There are no plans to change any of Palm Digital Media's current product offerings."Direct quote, which basically means that non-PalmOS products like the Pocket PC, Mac and PC versions of the Palm Reader product should continue just as before. :way to go:
|
Nice! That's good, although I heard it a little late, I had already re-download all my stuff I bought from them.  ops:
|
| |
|
|
|
09-03-2003, 09:28 PM
|
|
Pontificator
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,466
|
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Ed Hansberry
So, hopefully this is going to be a win for all users if some of the existing PalmGear site tech gets integrated into the ebook side of the business.
|
I should hope so. Kenny West doesn't exactly strike me as an unbiased, non-Palm friendly kind of guy. :wink:
|
| |
|
|
|
09-03-2003, 09:38 PM
|
|
Pupil
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 14
|
|
PocketPC version is continuing
I now have worked for four companies from this very chair  , and I've now said this three times:
We're continuing the PocketPC version.
It's turned out true every time, and I have no reason to believe that it won't turn out true again. I believe, if anything, we're in a much better position as part of a retail company than an OS company.
I don't know any of the details of the problems that PalmGear had before they were purchased by the current management, so I can't comment on them. I can say, however, that I don't believe that they'll be changing how PDM does business.
I'm more than happy to try to answer any questions.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Linear Mode
