PreDevCamp Gets Scheduled Amidst Drama

Posted By: Ryan Kairer Sunday, May 24, 2009 12:56:16 PM

The various preDevCamp community developer meet-ups have now been scheduled for Saturday, June 13th. The community organized event will gather interested webOS/Pre developers in various locations around the planet. The announcement also comes with a bit of controversy as a dispute became public concerning the chief organizers and various staff at Palm Inc.

We've fought an uphill struggle with Palm as they tried to make up their minds as to whether they wanted to support this community or not. Unfortunately, Palm doesn't quite understand the value of a community like preDevCamp and, having cut back and forth for quite some time, have finally made it clear that they have no interest in actively supporting preDevCamp.

Writing in a blog post announcing the preDevCamp date, the organizers each detail their take on yet another a case of public relations gone foul. The group was concerned about the level of official support from Palm Inc, and got cut off after Palm claimed they violated an NDA agreement.

Their story is explained here by @Giovanni, which was subsequently picked up by Slashdot, responded to by Palm Inc on their PDN blog and now the group claims to have reached some sort of resolution.

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Palm support?

PeerBr @ 5/25/2009 8:46:27 AM #

The last post on the predevcamp site clearly says Palm does support the meeting.

Palm are a bunch of morons

rmhurdman @ 5/26/2009 9:19:30 AM #

I don't understand how Palm can repeatedly offend the developer community like this, and still expect to succeed. What made PalmOS great was the developer community and large range of third-party apps. Similarly, what makes the iPhone great is the app store.

But Palm repeatedly does this. No backward compatibility native to webOS. Then they sue a long-time supporter for making a lookalike. (was it Teal?) They don't offer software upgrades and bug-fix updates are slow. It's like they think: "This would be a great business, if it weren't for the bloody users."

I think Palm deserves to fail, simply for this attitude they've taken toward their ex-fans.

RE: Palm are a bunch of morons

SeldomVisitor @ 5/26/2009 10:07:42 AM #

> I don't understand how Palm can repeatedly offend the developer
> community like this, and still expect to succeed...

I just read an "analyst"'s words that Palm has attracted a full 60% of iPhone developers:

== "...He said investors should also be very careful about the fact that
== about 60 percent of iPhone developers have signed up for the Palm Pre
== developer program..."

How about THEM apples!

Lol!

[no, I don't believe that particular statistic at ALL...giggle]

RE: Palm are a bunch of morons

mikecane @ 5/26/2009 3:42:50 PM #

>>>It's like they think: "This would be a great business, if it weren't for the bloody users."

LMAO!!! Jeff Hawkins made the original 4 PIM apps OPEN to devs to modify at will. Quite a difference, huh?

RE: Palm are a bunch of morons

jca666us @ 5/26/2009 4:51:54 PM #

"About two weeks ago, Foxconn was having problems with the flexible printed circuit board for the Pre and having trouble getting adequate yields for the capacitive touch-screen display,"
interesting predicament:

Kumar told me by phone this afternoon.
"Now, it appears Foxconn has found more hardware problems, and it's not clear if the problem is with Texas Instruments's (TXN) OMAP application processor, or with some basic design issue." Whatever the problem, Kumar says the difficulties are forcing Foxconn to have to check Pre units more or less by hand, one by one, instead of the automated testing that would be normal for a high-volume production run.

RE: Palm are a bunch of morons

hkklife @ 5/26/2009 5:09:52 PM #

Some of the worst PC-related experiences I've ever had were with Foxconn-branded mobos. While I'd hope for their OEM work to be better, I would not be at all surprised if Palm has again gone the penny-wise, dollar-foolish route.

I suspect another T|T--->T|T2 or 700p--->755p or 700w--->700wx situation is brewing. That is, replacing a single model that has a fundamental hardware and/or software issues after a brief initial production run with a nearly-identical "fixed" model.

16GB Pre refresh in time for Christmas, anyone?

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: Palm are a bunch of morons

CFreymarc @ 6/1/2009 2:30:12 PM #

This is what happens when you have accountants, marketing execs and lawyers that never wrote a line of code in their life run a company thinking their IP is worth more than it really is. Notice that there haven't been any public valuations lately.

There is a trade off between openess to third party developers and keeping some family jewels close so the company still retains value. Apple and Microsoft has done this very well in the desktop space. Why this is not transitioning into the handheld space is beyond me.

I keep on thinking that "because it is handheld" some cabal is trying to create a new business paradigm so a technology company can be more valued. Then again, maybe too many consumer electronic types that have been working in closed systems most of their careers are calling the shots. They don't know how to play well with others and would use positive charged electrons to keep their products propietary if they could.

I'll just keep rolling my eyes with the rest of the crowd

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