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

developer.palm.com

81–90 of 105 posts

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

#82
post #4

Blackberry gave away Playbooks to anyone who developed an app for it, which resulted in a lot of "developers" who produced low-quality, minimally useful apps. Is there some quality control that will limit who counts as a developer for the TouchPad? If not, I expect this will have a similar result. And really, even if they get real mobile developers, it may result in some half-hearted ports unless it becomes clear at…

Palm and then HP has a very long history of giving cheap and heavily discounted devices to developers for development purposes. I've been registered as a developer since, 2003 or 4, and it was common practice with the Treos.

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

#84
post #4

Blackberry gave away Playbooks to anyone who developed an app for it, which resulted in a lot of "developers" who produced low-quality, minimally useful apps. Is there some quality control that will limit who counts as a developer for the TouchPad? If not, I expect this will have a similar result. And really, even if they get real mobile developers, it may result in some half-hearted ports unless it becomes clear at…

They should recast the program to send out the tablets as loaners, then forgive the debt for the developers who make actually decent apps. A curated giveaway.

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

#87
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.

When it comes to app sales, does it really have to be stable long-term? I thought app development was already generally a short-term gambit anyway.

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

#88
post #13
post #3

Great ... I can't register for a developer account because I'm from Slovenia. Guess it's time to move to Somalia so I'll be able to register :\

Don't be too disappointed, but the page only mentions developers from North America and Europe can get a coupon. That means Somalia would be out, too. Now why can't Australian developers have coupons, too? US, UK, Canada, but not Australia?

fyi Slovenia IS in Europe

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

#89
post #84
post #4

Blackberry gave away Playbooks to anyone who developed an app for it, which resulted in a lot of "developers" who produced low-quality, minimally useful apps. Is there some quality control that will limit who counts as a developer for the TouchPad? If not, I expect this will have a similar result. And really, even if they get real mobile developers, it may result in some half-hearted ports unless it becomes clear at…

They should recast the program to send out the tablets as loaners, then forgive the debt for the developers who make actually decent apps. A curated giveaway.

And how exactly would you define a "decent app" in a way that wouldn't be absurd or totally not useful and wouldn't give you ton of grief if a developer tried to challenge your decision? It's essentially the iOS App Store problem except you're mailing around physical hardware to boot.

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

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again replying here (what's up with that?!) ... If you don't see a reply link under the comment, click on "link" next to the " n minutes ago " text at the top, and you be take to a form where you can reply directly to that comment.

God, why do ya'll care? These tablets aren't even worth the $149. Buy a cheap, shitty Android tablet for $100 and you'll be just as frustrated, but have a device that's mildly useful.

Have you ever even tried the Touchpad? The hardware alone is worth at least that much. WebOS is a great operating system. If you don't like it, put CM7 on it.

Don't be so ignorant. I bought one for my parents at 149.99 and they love it. I probably would have bought one for myself as well had I felt the need for a tablet.

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