PalmGear Expands Into China
PalmGear has announced their expansion into China with a new Chinese language software store and offices in Shanghai and Beijing. PalmGear’s expansion will bring software, eBooks and content to consumers and enterprise customers throughout mainland China.
The new online store, www.palmgear.cn was fully developed in Beijing by PalmGear China and is the first online distribution site for Palm Powered hardware, software and content to be fully localized in mainland China.
PalmGear’s presence in China gives handheld device owners access to new software titles from games to office applications. PalmGear China’s site includes a full product description translation of the Top 100 software applications into Simplified Chinese with hundreds of additional titles to be added throughout Q1 2004. In addition to fully translated product descriptions in Simplified Chinese, PalmGear China is working with its development team to launch a program which would assist Palm OS developers worldwide with full translation of their software applications for expansion into the China market. The company also plans to give mobile device users access to wireless content delivery through its partnership with PalmSource’s Palm Powered Mobile World program.
“China is the world’s second largest market for handheld and smartphone sales and an integral part of our global content strategy,” said Ryan Wuerch, chief executive officer and president of PalmGear. “By opening offices in mainland China and fully localizing our content offering, we are committing to the continued expansion of the Palm OS platform and third-party software sales growth inside China. We are very excited to provide the China handheld market with a rich content and shopping experience through online sales and enterprise distribution.”
PalmGear has been the world’s largest online distributor for Palm OS software and content since its launch in 1997 and recently announced a strategic partnership with PalmSource that included the company’s acquisition of Palm Digital Media, the largest online distributor of eBooks worldwide. With the purchase of Palm Digital Media, PalmGear increased its content offering to more than 31,000 available digital titles for Palm Powered devices and is pursuing efforts to expand the popular eBook platform into the China market in 2004.
There is more on the subject and PalmGear's recent growth from a recent interview with PalmGear CEO Ryan Wuerch. He says, Our [PalmGear's] relationship with PalmSource (the Palm OS manufacturer) is very close. We acquired Palm Digital Media from them and created a worldwide strategic alliance agreement with them. So they brought us in last year into the China (expansion). Everything we have done this last year has been our own effort, but they have been very supportive and have assisted."
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Bad idea
Secondly, most Chinese don't even have credit cards, the ones who do don't use them as often as Westerners do (as China is still for the most part a cash-based society), and as far as I know nobody's ever even successfully launched a pay-per-download service in China before. I somehow doubt that PalmGear will be able to make the breakthrough.
The way to sell software in China is through an OEM deal or deeply discounted in a bookstore, and until the software market there undergoes some major changes it's doubtful that PalmGear China will encounter much success. At the very least, as a developer of Chinese-language software I can say for my part that I have no interest whatsoever in selling through them.
RE: Bad idea
RE: Bad idea
I still think this will fail miserably, though.
RE: Bad idea
i have many friends who are of chinese descent - and who quite happily pay for software. i think your remarks are quite inaccurate - maybe because they are tainted with venom.
afaic palmgear rocks - i get nice big fat checks every month - if i had no other income i'd still be comfortable. i also wasn't silly enough to allow myself to get shafted way back when. stand up for yourself for chrisakes... you don't need to be a big company (which i'm certainly not!) to do that - you just need some kahones...
JLM
RE: Bad idea
When you say chinese descent, you mean ABC's? Canadian Chinese? BBC's? Hongkies? Different from those in China.
I come from Asia where software piracy is RAMPANT! On an average, a starting executive from my country earns about US$500 when converted. I doubt the average Chinese earns this much. And if you think about it further, one freaking Palm software costs about $20.00 on average. And that's like 4% of my salary. And most probably, for that amount I can have a nice meal for me and my wife in China.
I honestly don't think this will work. I come from a world of software pirates. Do you know that I can get the Windows XP for about US$3. The authorities ain't doin nothing about it. Yeah, sure, one day they'll have raids and all. Then the next week, they come back. Oh by the way, pirates are already distributing the Longhorn, God knows where they get it from.
A software pirate would most probably compile 100 of the top selling software from PalmGear into one CD and sell it for 3 bucks to happy people like me. Cracked and usable. No problem.
Why should I even bother to buy on line?
On another note, I've actually TRIED to sell my app in retail at half the American price I was chargin'. Not much takers I'm afraid, coz the next-door software pirates shop, sell mine and like 100 others in one CD for half of what I'm sellin'. So I give up!
When software is concerned. I'd turn to the Western world.
BTW, these software pirates, are run by like Gangsters (sort of Asian mafia's). They bribe the authorities so that their 'distributors' don't get disturbed by 'em police. Police are dirty. Gangsters are happy. Piracy is a multi-billion industry, in terms of gains and losses. So it ain't a joke. Even if developers were to catch the pirates/those who use pirates, the costs too much. Might as well leave 'em in peace.
Still going to China? I never looked that way...
RE: Bad idea
And I don't mean to place any sort of blame on anyone except for the pirated software traders - you really can't expect someone making a few hundred dollars a month to shell out even $50 for a copy of Windows, and even the Chinese government is mostly acting in the best interests of its people on this, being just serious enough about piracy to avoid trade sanctions while not attempting to eliminate it completely.
And I'm not switching to Pocket PC, I'm just producing a series of Pocket PC ports because it'll make me more money and because I no longer feel much loyalty to a company that has shown very little of it to me. I don't really like Pocket PC as a platform, but with my diminished loyalty towards Palm the financial incentives are too good to ignore.
And by the way, if you think you're making money on PalmGear, look at how much you're paying them every month and ponder for a moment how much Google, Overture, and other advertising you could buy with that.
RE: Bad idea
Sorry for the confusion.
Hmm... actually, I do feel the pain when selling my software through PG. Do you have any other ideas where I could go, but still be able to sell to the US without leaving my home in Asia or trading my passport?
Thanks.
RE: Bad idea
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Choice is an illusion created between those with power, and those without.
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HEY THIS IS GOOD FOR YOUR PARTNER
THEY ARE CHANGING THE WAY SOFTWARE SALES WORK in CHINA.
Good luck to all & happy holidays
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FYI, first post woohoo!