Comments on: ChatterEmail Developer Leaves Palm

ChatterEmailPalm's CFO isn't the only well known employee announcing their departure today as word has come in that Marc Blank of ChatterEmail fame has left the company. Marc writes in a forum post "As of December 14, 2008, neither Josh nor I are affiliated with Palm, Inc.; therefore, neither of us will be monitoring this board or handling support [...] What's more, we are not privy to any plans that Palm might have for supporting new and existing customers."

Marc Blank was brought into the company in early 2007, when Palm purchased his ChatterEmail program. ChatterEmail is still widely considered as one of the best email solutions for Palm OS smartphones. While nothing was ever officially stated, Marc was suspected to be contributing to the email/messaging portion of Palm's next generation operating system.

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Wow

CFreymarc @ 12/15/2008 2:45:51 PM # Q
Ok ... you are out of the Palm community. I hope whatever is next for you works out. Nice code from you for sure!
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ChatterEmail for Android?

dewald @ 12/15/2008 3:17:52 PM # Q
Subject says it all.

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So, erm....

Gazpacho @ 12/15/2008 4:20:09 PM # Q
.... why not develop for Nova? Or at least telling people you're planning to do *something* with Palm's new OS....

http://foleocentral.blogspot.com

FoleoCentral is the news, opinions & review blog about the Palm Foleo Mobile Companion
RE: So, erm....
joad @ 12/17/2008 11:21:02 AM # Q
Well, with the timing perhaps they know something about Nova that we don't?


Paying my annual PDA update tax to Palm since 1997.
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Startup Alert!

mikecane @ 12/15/2008 4:48:28 PM # Q
That's what it is. Out to make their new pile of money.

Good luck!

RE: Startup Alert!
SeldomVisitor @ 12/15/2008 4:53:34 PM # Q
Uh...Mike...Coligan/Brown et al have recently said Palm is the best-funded "startup" in Silicon Valley...

RE: Startup Alert!
mikecane @ 12/15/2008 5:36:48 PM # Q
They won't make money beyond a salary writing a program while *Palm employees*. Palm would bundle it or sell it and they'd have squat.

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Oh noooooooo...2 years of waiting down the drain. I have stuck wi

horatio8 @ 12/15/2008 5:22:23 PM # Q
Oh noooooooo...2 years of waiting down the drain. I have stuck with my Treo 650 solely because of Chatter. I know Palm is cutting costs, but this is very shortsighted. Chatteremail is the best mobile email client on any platform.

Marc, if you're watching this, lead and I will follow. Please let your loyal fans know if there is a way to keep track of your next moves (Twitter?).

RE: Oh noooooooo...2 years of waiting down the drain. I have stuck wi
jamesgood72 @ 12/18/2008 12:15:51 PM # Q
Chatter was the best email app for the Palm, by far.

I only just acquired an iPhone. I'm still very uneasy leaving my Treo at home. iPhone email problems : can't have multiple exchange accounts (without going to a generic (non-IDLE) IMAP account; can't tell an account to sleep over-night (crazy!); send a photo via email, and it locks you from sending another until that one finishes; You can't add a photo to an email reply.



USR Pilot 5000, Palm Pilot Pro, Palm V, Clie 610C, Clie TG50, Clie UX50, Treo 650, Treo 680

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More amusement. Palm+Email = bye bye $$

CompeauFawkes @ 12/16/2008 7:04:28 AM # Q
I lose track so many acquisitions ago- Perhaps one of our resident historians can set me straight on precisely how many email solutions Palm Computing, ne Palm, Inc., ne PalmSource, Inc., etc. has purchased and tripped over itself failing to create a single comprehensive email solution? How many? 6? 7?

One has to wonder how one company in Silicon Valley could have the poor luck to continuously make such costly decisions time and time again.

In the immortal words of Ronco: "But, wait, there's more!" Just watch the headlines continue to reveal the sad spiral.

Many mourn the possibilities that might have been from this one-time promising, aspiring firm with a simple mantra that somehow got lost in gold-threaded suits and the ever grander promise of 'the next version of the Palm OS' which never arrived in product form-a chimera on the horizon, ever receding from grasp.

Once again we have a milestone to wait for. After years of disappointment, my expectations are low. Would that I could hope to be pleasantly surprised after all these years.



__
Mike Compeau

RE: More amusement. Palm+Email = bye bye $$
joad @ 12/17/2008 11:22:43 AM # Q
I just remember MultiMail, which they bought and morphed into the current "Email" app. I use Snappermail, which is far from perfect (sucks with HTML) but it does the job.


Paying my annual PDA update tax to Palm since 1997.
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VersaMail

Gekko @ 12/16/2008 7:20:29 AM # Q

ain't room for two.

RE: VersaMail
cstamper @ 12/16/2008 9:10:45 AM # Q
Sure there is!

Both would be totally neglected, though...

wait a sec...

:-(

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Not that unusual

rcartwright @ 12/16/2008 11:16:06 AM # Q
While I know the first thing most folks at PIC do is try to figure out the worst light to put news in this is not that unusual. When a product is bought and the creator goes in the company, the creator often leaves after a year or two. Part of it is when you have been the boss its hard to be an employee. Another part is, as has been mentioned here, he is probably going to develop for Android now that he has gotten some exposure to Linux smaprtphone programing. CA does not allow no compete contracts so he can get out the gate pretty fast. Also notice the Android app store will let you start charging in February. He kept the paycheck as long as he could and probably worked on the Android product on the side. A lot of Palm folks have been attracted to Android and his name would be a pull by itself.

Further, from Palm's POV, after he ported Chattermail to Nova they could let him go and save his probably high salary. Nova is a new OS and while I don't mean to diss his skills, Palm might have rather had lower paid code monkeys that are not hindered by thinking about the code from a garnet standpoint.

Finally, if he wanted out anyway, any Palm stock options he had would be easer to exercise and sell if her was no longer an insider. If he really thinks its gonna tank in the end he might be able to sell on the hop if they have a decent demo at CES. I have to say its been a while since I messed with SEC stuff and I do not recall how long he has to be out to lose his insider status.

"Many men stumble across the truth, but most manage to pick themselves up
and continue as if nothing had happened."
- Winston Churchill

RE: Not that unusual
SeldomVisitor @ 12/16/2008 11:27:17 AM # Q
Typically the termination agreement, whatever its contents, will also say something along the line of "Yer no longer an Insider; sell at will! But ya only got 30 days to do it!".

It is REAL unlikely he has any options in the money.

RE: Not that unusual
Gekko @ 12/16/2008 1:49:52 PM # Q
RE: Not that unusual
mikecane @ 12/17/2008 6:10:21 AM # Q
>>>While I know the first thing most folks at PIC do is try to figure out the worst light to put news in this is not that unusual.

Worst light? You dimple, I said he'd be forming a startup and getting rich from Novaware!

RE: Not that unusual
rcartwright @ 12/17/2008 11:54:23 AM # Q
For Palm Mike, for Palm. He will surely make some coin developing for Android. Particularly as Apple seems to be at the "first make mad" stage of the quote "...whom the gods destroy they first make mad."

"Many men stumble across the truth, but most manage to pick themselves up
and continue as if nothing had happened."
- Winston Churchill
Reply to this comment

More from Marc B.

conorn @ 12/17/2008 4:19:09 AM # Q
Pushed sideways?


The reason I resigned: My responsibilities had changed enough at Palm that I was no longer enjoying my work, or contributing in a way that I found satisfying. Please note that this should NOT be interpreted as any kind of judgment about Palm, its products (present or future), or the people there; this was very much a personal decision, and I wish Palm well.



RE: More from Marc B.
SeldomVisitor @ 12/17/2008 4:53:46 AM # Q
As a Palm-pessimist (No! Really!?) I'd say leaving one month before the Next Next Great Thang is introduced with its theoretical dramatic effect on the stock price and accompanying change in value of vested (and nonvested) stock options makes the departure a genuine statement on Palm and its future products no matter what the departee states (on prompting from Palm?).


RE: More from Marc B.
twrock @ 12/17/2008 5:40:32 AM # Q
I'm enjoying all of this rampant speculation about "what it all means" (regarding the last few days of postings, not just on this article, but I suspect that as time goes on most of it will be shown to be nothing more than ignorant babbling. I think I'll just wait and see what it actually does all mean.

In this case, it may come as a surprise that there actually are people in the world who do not base all their decisions on what some stock has done, is doing or potentially will do. It's simply a matter of placing "value" somewhere else. Since I don't know Marc, and neither do you, who's to say?


"twrock is infamous around these parts"
(from my profile over at Brighthand due to my negative 62 rep points rating)

RE: More from Marc B.
mikecane @ 12/17/2008 6:06:49 AM # Q
I wouldn't pin hopes on that stock popping any time soon.

Palm could come out with its own Jesus OS and *still* have miserable sales.

It's the economy, stupid.

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