$149 for a Touchpad if you sign up as a developer • Hacker News Board

Re: $149 for a Touchpad if you sign up as a developer

#61

Post by X-Istence » Sat, Nov 05, 2011, 5:12 PM UTC

drivingmenuts wrote: post #30

wazoox wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've talked in 2002 or 2003 to a guy who was still developing fro BeOS at the time. Better have a near monopoly on an uncommon OS than be some invisible me-too :)

The question is: is there a profitable long-term market in the Touchpad? Who actually bought the device? Corporations who will commit to long term usage (I doubt it) or tech nerds who will flash the device to run Android (leading to a different, well-populated market) or tech nerds who will use the device as is (and abandon it in a year or two)? Honestly, this sounds like very short-term thinking on the part of Palm.

I bought the device because I honestly believe that WebOS is an interesting take on a tablet OS (and I like it much better over Android). However I will not be purchasing any apps on the device. I use it strictly as an eReader.

Re: $149 for a Touchpad if you sign up as a developer

#62

Post by X-Istence » Sat, Nov 05, 2011, 5:17 PM UTC

morsch wrote: post #41

So are they still making a loss at that price? iSuppli seems to think so, they estimate about USD 300 in costs per Touchpad. But if that's true, why did they resume production in late August? And now a developer program for a EOL platform? It all seems sort of bizarre.

This is a musing of mine, so it may be completely wrong.

HP most likely "resumed production" so that they could clear out any remaining stock. I can imagine that they had warehouses full of parts that were just not put together yet and had already paid suppliers for. These would have been written off and either sold back to the vendor or been destroyed. Also, it is entirely possible that HP had a contract with their manufacturer for a certain time period and if they broke that contract they would be out X where X is bigger than Y which is the amount it would cost to build and ship these devices at a loss.

This isn't the first time that I've seen a company do a "last run" to clear out the remaining parts before shutting down a product for good.

Re: $149 for a Touchpad if you sign up as a developer

#63

Post by X-Istence » Sat, Nov 05, 2011, 5:18 PM UTC

nvictor wrote: post #47

what? where is the promised $99 good?

This is for the 32 GB TouchPad which sold at the fire-sale for $150. The $99 one was for a 16 GB TouchPad which apparently they no longer have.

Re: $149 for a Touchpad if you sign up as a developer

#64

Post by codedivine » Sat, Nov 05, 2011, 5:20 PM UTC

phillmv wrote: post #15

tiles wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to Palm Developer relations, because there's money to be made on an uncrowded platform. There are plenty of existing TouchPad owners thanks to the firesale, and those that use their devices are willing to pay to improve their experience (since the experience won't likely be improved by HP themselves long-term). And you might have more success short-term by selling smaller apps on the Palm Marketplace than y…

Am I the only person to think that this is a patently ridiculous line of thinking?

Not necessarily. At least a couple of devs I personally know have made more money on WebOS than Android (none of them developed for iOS so no idea about that).

Re: $149 for a Touchpad if you sign up as a developer

#65

Post by rbanffy » Sat, Nov 05, 2011, 5:50 PM UTC

codedivine wrote: post #64

phillmv wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I the only person to think that this is a patently ridiculous line of thinking?

Not necessarily. At least a couple of devs I personally know have made more money on WebOS than Android (none of them developed for iOS so no idea about that).

And add to that how much more enjoyable it is to develop for WebOS and you get a winner.

I'd bet US$150 on that.

Re: $149 for a Touchpad if you sign up as a developer

#66

Post by aquark » Sat, Nov 05, 2011, 6:25 PM UTC

May be available to Canadians, but you appear to need a 'tax identification number' from the IRS to open the account.

"Form W-8BEN should be completed by all Non-US developers planning to make their applications available for sale to US customers/end-users. The form and instructions may be found at the following IRS website ...."

Fortunately the form accepted '-' as a 'valid' number ... we'll see if they try and validate it later.

Re: $149 for a Touchpad if you sign up as a developer

#67

Post by richtaur » Sat, Nov 05, 2011, 6:41 PM UTC

Going to be really difficult for Palm to compete in the tablet market given their industry instability. They contacted us about getting our game onto an HP TouchPad -- then promptly announced their discontinuation (???).

Plus, Google has already given me a free Galaxy Tab (for attending Google I/O). Among that and my iPad, it's pretty easy to guess which I'll be hacking on.

Re: $149 for a Touchpad if you sign up as a developer

#68

Post by drKarl » Sat, Nov 05, 2011, 6:43 PM UTC

mgcross wrote: post #49

endlessvoid94 wrote: post #45

I clicked the devmarketing@palm.com link, and it apparently executes some javascript to unencrypt the actual email address you're supposed to email. It didn't work, though. I tried Chrome, Safari, and Firefox. I just emailed devmarketing@palm.com directly -- anyone have any insight into this? I see no errors in my Javascript console, but when I paste the JS call in directly into the console, the return value is undef…

It seems to execute a mailto to the same email address with a subject of "Developer Device Program NA TouchPad"

Or "Developer Device Program EMEA TouchPad" for Europe.

Re: $149 for a Touchpad if you sign up as a developer

#69

Post by cdsanchez » Sat, Nov 05, 2011, 6:56 PM UTC

ryanwatkins wrote: post #60

firefoxman1 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are 2 types of developer accounts. One is free and one is $99. I think you have to have the $99 account to put your apps in the catalog, but the other account gives you access to all the tools and dev resources. Side note, how is your touchpad's battery life? Mine surprisingly sucked.

Both account types are free, and have always been free for webOS. https://developer.palm.com/index.php?option=com_user&vie... There is no fee required to distribute in the catalog, for either a paid or free app.

I imagine they require the developer account type for the device program, right? That's what the vocabulary on the page seems to imply -- I'm going to try to get the coupon with with a basic account first, but I expect they'll just tell me to upgrade to the developer account type.

Re: $149 for a Touchpad if you sign up as a developer

#70

Post by shaggyfrog » Sat, Nov 05, 2011, 7:14 PM UTC

aquark wrote: post #66

May be available to Canadians, but you appear to need a 'tax identification number' from the IRS to open the account. "Form W-8BEN should be completed by all Non-US developers planning to make their applications available for sale to US customers/end-users. The form and instructions may be found at the following IRS website ...." Fortunately the form accepted '-' as a 'valid' number ... we'll see if they try and vali…

I'm a Canadian developer and it was no problem getting one of those from the IRS. In fact, I did it over the phone. It was surprisingly painless.