Comments on: Mobileplay Launches Free Content Service

You Mac boys have been "played" by mobiplay.

As cool as the mac os is, it behooves mac users to have a $399 pc box laying around for these impromtu snafus. I briefly scanned the tutorial, but didn't finish. No video? Only text? My tungsten c can surf the internet already, what do I need mobileplay for? Mozingo was a good idea to distribute video, but they went belly up.

---
David

Palm was actually CLOSE to being on the right track with the T|W. Laugh if you will, it had a decent screen (for its time), external storage, and a decent keyboard. It was just crippled by the usual Palm caveats of an underpowered CPU/OS/RAM combo. They should have omitted ALL voice capabilities from it and held off its release until six months later, somehow coming up with a hybrid T|W/T|C. Bluetooth OR Wi-Fi (both would be ideal but unrealistic at back then) + a cellular radio ONLY for data needs + 320*320 + good battery life + a decent thumbboard would have been killer back in '03.

Nowadays you'd need the specs TVoR refers to. I could see plenty of execs/power users paying two separate cell bills (one for their RAZR strictly used for voice and one for their cellular data device).

I cannot recall offhand how many mid-level management and up execs I've seen with a BB used solely for e-mail and a slim conventional cell phone they use for voice. Some of them don't even know/care that the BB has voice functionality. $30-$40 extra per month is worth it to some that don't want to be seen holding a blue plastic brick up against the side of their head and talking...

Additionally, the only way I see the LifeDrive line being able to save face is to drop the HD entirely and use the recovered space for a larger battery, an EVDO data onky cellular raddio and a 2nd SD slot (if there's room).

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5

U.S.A.!! U.S.A.!! U.S.A.!! U.S.A.!! U.S.A.!! U.S.A.!!

It's profitable for Microsoft to produce products for the so-called 2% market share and there are many other companies who produce software for the Mac.
( http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/ )

So you believe that 2% of the DESKTOP market is the same as 2% of the MacOS-syncing-Palm device market? Wow. There probably is no point even trying to show you how clueless you are.

If Macs were so insignificant why do PC manufacturers and Microsoft copy everything that comes out of Cupertino (Apple) be it Mac or iPod?

Apple is no longer a computer company. They are a consumer electronics company that sells style, image and a Windows-alternative cachet. No more, no less. No one copies anything other than superficial style/marketing from Apple these days.

By your logic it's time the USA S.T.F.U. with its dislikes and demands as it's only 5% of the Earth's population.

Yes, for many reasons it's time the USA S.T.F.U. with its dislikes and demands, but population size is not one of them. Stay in school (awake + not stoned) long enough and maybe you'll LEARN why there is more to the world than just the USA. I hope Ryan does not delete this post again - this paragraph sums up a lot of why America is hated by so many countries around the world, including those totally dependent upon the USA for economic support/relief.

TVoR
Economist, Philosopher, PalmOS user.

------------------------
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
------------------------

The Palm eCONomy = Communism™

The Great Palm Swindle: http://www.palminfocenter.com/comment_view.asp?ID=7864#108038

NetFrontLinux - the next major cellphone OS?: http://www.palminfocenter.com/comment_view.asp?ID=8060#111823

Don't try moving the goalposts; you made a sweeping statement about market share, not just a reference to the MacOS device-syncing market. I'm just as entitled to make sweeping statements as you are.

Moving goalposts? Are you on crack? Go back and READ the original post. And sorry, Bubba - not many companies can make a decent living selling Mac-only software. Almost none could survive selling Mac-only Palm-related software. Feel free to respond with more delusional, wishful posts. Unfortunately for you, your dreams of Mac have little to do with reality.

As for complaining, if enough people asked for Mac support it may turn out to be extra revenue for a company in a very competitive environment. If it's not worth it's while it's not worth it's while but how would a company know if people didn't ask for it?

Complain all you want - but no company with intelligent management will devote resources to a non-profitable venture just because you want them to.

>>>Apple is no longer a computer company. They are a consumer electronics company that sells style, image and a Windows-alternative cachet. No more, no less. No one copies anything other than superficial style/marketing from Apple these days.

Hey Bud, whatever it takes to legally earn a living and survive. It's better than ending up as HandEra or PalmSource. Incidentally, Motorola originally made car parts and Nokia started life as a company making paper and rubber tyres but nobody's harrassing them for moving into other fields. What's scary is that there are companies out there which copy the style and marketing yet still aren't successful! How many years have we been hearing of the "iPod killer" now, even though there are players out there with more features at a better price?

The problem is, given their size, how long can Apple compete by using its style Vs the better prices + better engineering of other companies? Fashion is a very fickle mistress. For the past few years, she's been faithful to Apple with the iPod, but how long will this last? I have a iRiver MP3 player that makes the iPod in its price class look like a joke. Once more people start seeing that Emperor iPod has no clothes (or if the MP3 fad dies out), Apple is toast.

>>>Countries totally dependent upon the USA for economic support/relief

Now let's see what is the USA dependent on
(it must be dependent on others in the world when you see its ENORMOUS trade deficit):

Oh yes:
Oil from anywhere it can grab it
Electronics including your Palm manufactured in Taiwan/China/Singapore
Clothes from China (the Chinese are already heading towards manufacturing most of the world's clothing)
Cars from Japan; how's GM been doing lately?
Progammers, Call centre staff etc from India or in India!

So where is this independence that you speak of?

Ummmm... what independence did I speak of? Your reading comprehension skills are atrocious, Bubba. And by the way, the accelerated shift of manufacturing and other jobs to Third World countries over the past few years has been driven by corporate greed, but it could easily be reversed if there was a desire or if the government instituted more draconian protectionist legislature (as I believe they should). Sending Palm tech support jobs to India has caused more American unemployment and resulted in horrible tech support for Palm's customers. The only one who won here was Palm by reducing costs.

Truth be told, the relationship between the USA and the world is like that of an alcoholic couple, it can get ugly, it can get messy but the husband needs the wife and the wife needs the husband, they're inseparable.

No, the relationship is more like that between a parent and their offspring. Some offspring are dependent and helpless like newborn children; others are well-adjusted, mature, productive adults; some are obnoxious, selfish teens; some are abusive, scheming black sheep. Guess where China fits in?

TVoR

------------------------
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
------------------------

The Palm eCONomy = Communism™

The Great Palm Swindle: http://www.palminfocenter.com/comment_view.asp?ID=7864#108038

NetFrontLinux - the next major cellphone OS?: http://www.palminfocenter.com/comment_view.asp?ID=8060#111823

VoR said Complain all you want - but no company with intelligent management will devote resources to a non-profitable venture just because you want them to
Glad you agree with me!

Go back and READ the original post. And sorry, Bubba - not many companies can make a decent living selling Mac-only software. Almost none could survive selling Mac-only Palm-related software
There are very few companies in any industry that make a living on a single product or service - PalmSource is an excellent example of just how difficult it can be. A company can make a living from selling both Mac and PC software. True, with its much larger market size, the PC market offers much more potential reward but also much more competition from rivals. Incidentally markspace seems to be getting along quite happily solely providing Mac syncing software.

The problem is, given their size, how long can Apple compete by using its style Vs the better prices + better engineering of other companies? Fashion is a very fickle mistress
You remind of the old joke: - One young Wall Street analyst to another: Every year Apple has been about to go out of business and they'll be about to go out of business when I retire at 60.

True, you didn't speak of independence, truth be told the relationship varies from nation to nation. Whilst the parent/offspring relationship analogy can be valid for some countries, it's wholly inappropriate for China: which was in existence long before any of the present European nations, never mind the relatively young USA.

"What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog" - Dwight D. Eisenhower

There was a program out by DVD Jon called "harmonize" or something, but Apple keep one-upping it; every time the DRM is broken, a new version of iTunes is released that fixes it up again. You can also burn the music to a CD and then re-rip it into mp3, but that results in both a noticeable drop in audio quality and lost money in blank cds. So you can beat it, but it's a pain the ass, and something the average consumer won't be knowledgable enough to do anyways.

The alternatives to the Apple Store are, frankly, pathetic. Either the DRM is too restrictive (you can only play on ONE computer and ONE portable player) or it's a subscription service, where if you stop giving them $40 a month they take all your music away. I like to own my music, and I suspect most people feel the same, which is why they haven't taken off like iTunes has.

Apple has two roads to killer profits: open iTunes to everybody and jack the price up a little - which would also have the advantage of severely screwing Microsoft's own efforts - or continue to make everyone buy their premium iPods by locking them into one format. They've chosen the latter option and as you noted, it may prove to be a fatal mistake once people catch on there's cheaper, better alternatives.

Tim Carroll
Your friendly customer service robot
(and big Treo fan)

If no1 bothered to make anymore sw for Macs, Apple would close down, and the antitrust folks be on M$ like a hobo on a ham sandwich. M$ could've easily wiped Apple off the face of the earth, but keeping Apple alive would keep their problems down much better.

Capitalism. You can dominate until you reach the Monopoly stage

"Do you know the difference between an error and a mistake? Anyone can make an error, but that error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it."
-Grand Admiral Thrawn

the secret to enjoying your job is to have a hobby that's even worse

My PDAs: Visor --> Visor Neo (blue) --> Zire 71 --> Tungsten T3 (with 4 of 6 screws still remaining) ~?~> zodiac 2?

An error by omission!
I meant to say:
The fact a lot of commercial software is still being produced for Mac OS X is evidence that it remains a profitable enterprise to do so.

"What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog" - Dwight D. Eisenhower

It's from a different company that's an Avantgo wannabe. It seems to have much less content; the only advantage I can see over Avantgo is the ability to send a link to a buddy but that can just as easily be done with a browser on the Palm, cut & paste and email.

"What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog" - Dwight D. Eisenhower