ChatterEmail Sales Discontinued by Palm
While we reported in December on ChatterEmail developer Marc Blanc leaving Palm for reasons unknown, the general consensus amongst the Palm OS faithful was that ChatterEmail would live on for the foreseeable future to serve the e-mail needs of Palm OS Garnet users. Unfortunately, it appears that Palm has decided to quietly let ChatterEmail die a faster-than-expected death by is no longer directly processing new registrations for the app.
Despite being available for purchase just a few months ago, the ChatterEmail "Buy Now" box now leads to an empty page. The Palm Software Connection store's ChatterEmail product page still provides support documentation and FAQ links to ChatterEmail. In additional, a functional 30-day trial version of the app is still available for download and no actual product EOL or discontinuation notice has been announced by Palm or posted to the ChatterEmail page. So while unlikely, it's still possible this may just be a short-term glitch that Palm will eventually rectify.
A rather glum-sounding post to the ChatterEmail support forums by Josh recently confirmed that the registration links have disappeared and that users will need to contact Palm directly. Registration of ChatterEmail via Palm support e-mail and chat appears to be fruitless, according to one user's frustrating experience.
Since the mid-December 2008 departure announcement of Marc Blanc and Josh M. from Palm, the company has announced their new WebOS initiative alongside the new Pre smartphone, so these events are not entirely unsurprising. While the famed app's primary development ceased after Palm acquired both ChatterEmail and the services of Mr. Blanc, a few minor updates to the app continued through 2007. These updates culminated with version 3.0.9's release in October 2007 to support the then-new Palm OS-based Centro.
As always, and with any kind of electronically distributed software, existing users of the registered versions of any app should take this as a cautionary warning to archive a copy of the program somewhere as well as preserve their registration information.
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RE: ChatterEmail gone...
If so, were they laid off?
If no competent support, perhaps not worth carrying - especially given the planned dropping of all but WebOS and WinMob.
RE: ChatterEmail gone...
1. No, but the app did apparently continue to be "sold" in the few months immediately past Marc's departure. I believe the problems with trying to process new registrations began in mid-Feb or so.
2. Who defines what it's "worth" to Palm vs. what it is "worth" to their remaining POS user base? WebOS is the main focus but there are many areas/fields/niches in which is cannot capably replace Palm OS Garnet, so you would imagine some kind of continued "mature" support would remain available for Garnet-based users if for no other reason than the huge installed base of that platform. Palm would be far better off just letting Chatter's IP/support and/or order taking be shouldered by a 3rd party as the product winds down its natural lifecycle instead of just suddenly killing it from one day to the next.
Fact: Palm OS devices (Centro) are still active models on AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and numerous other networks globally. Furthermore, no official EOL or discontinuation notice has been given for the remaining Palm OS-based PDAs. So you'd think that they'd keep Chatter registrations going at least through mid-2010 (a fair amount of time, given the Sprint Centro hits EOL status this July), especially if we go by Mr. McNamee's reasoning. All of those Centro users will be out of contract by mid-2011 and therefore be chompin' at the bit for a new WebOS device...ummm, right?
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->?
RE: ChatterEmail gone...
Marc
What do I do?
RE: What do I do?
May be solved!
Hello Jerry,
The software will be available for download from the Palm Software Store within the next 8 hours.
Best Regards,
Matt Stein
PocketGear
That would be great, since I use Chatter for professional purposes and would be very happy to be able to continue.
RE: May be solved!
http://software.palm.com/us/html/display_palm_product.jsp?id=prod7225925
All seems to work fine so far.
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ChatterEmail gone...
Marc