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    PayPal to Discontinue Palm OS SupportPosted By: Ed on Friday, August 11, 2000 10:47:43 AM
The following is an e-mail sent to all users of the PayPal app for the Palm: We wish to inform you that X.com will be discontinuing support of the PayPal software for Palm and Handspring organizers approximately three weeks from now. With the growth of wireless Internet applications and the rapid spread of web-enabled PDAs, we feel that we can best serve our customers by focusing on the creation of new features for our wireless payments platform.The PayPal app allowed Palm users to beam money back and forth and have the amount either added or subtracted from their PayPal accounts. The quote continues: Your online account will not be affected when we discontinue the Palm support. However, you will no longer be able to synchronize your Palm software with your online account. I read on another site someone claiming 7 million installed users of the PayPal Palm app. This seems like a very high number. If you were a user and have an opinion on the service, chime in below with your comments -Ed Thanks to Matt and Dennis Esler who both brought this to our attention.
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Article Comments
19 total comments The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. PIC is not responsible for them in any way. login or register for free in order to post comments.  RE: Service was absolutely fantastic
I agree paypal was great, who are some of their compeitors. i will be switching. My co-workers and I used it frequently via email and more frequently beaming . if I can't beam and synchronize who needs it. Denise RE: Service was absolutely fantastic
I completely agree. If PayPal is being dropped, then I'm definitely switching over to a competitor. RE: Service was absolutely fantastic
I completely agree. If PayPal is being dropped, then I'm definitely switching over to a competitor. RE: Service was absolutely fantastic
Unfortunately, the competitors aren't offering Palm OS software. There is certainly a niche here for a clever programmer. I'm willing to be you could interface with several different companies offering these services to create a generic palm money app. Competitors were identified in one article as www.payme.com and www.ecash.com Payme appears to be up and running. Ecash looks a little rough around the edges to me. RE: Service was absolutely fantastic
I totally agree with all the senciments expressed here, the paypal beam feature holds great promise, I will be talking to a developer friend about a substitute. RE: Service was absolutely fantastic
I totally agree with all the senciments expressed here, the paypal beam feature holds great promise, I will be talking to a developer friend about a substitute. RE: Service was absolutely fantasticI.M. Anonymous @ 11/3/2000 8:33:55 AM #
Please, if you find a competitor that offers palm sync, please announce it loudly and widely. I will be there.
 Cost
Bear in mind that development is just one cost of maintaining a product. If PayPal continues to support a Palm client, they have to pay a support staff to do it. (Even bug-free software -- is there such a thing? -- generates support calls. I don't know anything about PayPal's business model, but it would not surprise me if the Palm client cost them more revenue than it generated. Notice the emphasis on continued support of the WAP client. They're RE: CostI.M. Anonymous @ 8/21/2000 3:59:39 PM #
PayPal doesn't HAVE a support staff! They don't even have a phone number on their website, last I checked.
(continued)I.M. Anonymous @ 8/11/2000 4:20:28 PM #
not the only EBusiness to neglect their other ventures for cellular apps. There are a *lot* of cell phones out there. PDAs don't even come close.
Bye-bye PayPalI.M. Anonymous @ 8/11/2000 5:28:30 PM #
That pretty much ends my usage of their service! Considering how useless my cell phone is compared to my OmniSky-equipped Palm, and the fact that every PayPal user I know uses the Palm version, I can't say this looks like a good move.
paypal discontinuejamel west @ 8/11/2000 7:16:46 PM #
More Palm users are not wireless
than those that are. Big mistake.
Such backward thinking from a forward looking company.Russell Howell @ 8/12/2000 12:19:29 AM #
I was in complete shock when I received my e-mail this evening. This was what I considered to be a real leap into the future of technology in the fact that cash was now truly portable AND electronic without constriants of needing to be a merchant with a credit card account to accept payment.
I must say that I closed my account with PayPal within 5 minutes of the e-mail. I can no longer support a company that make great leaps forward only to take it all back. I would have kept my account if they had started service charges for the palm based usage, but that didn't even appear to be a consideration. Maybe someone had some influence in to this decision that wanted to take some power out of the Palms?
Extended ServiceSteve Smith @ 8/12/2000 2:27:29 AM #
I contacted PayPal last month about accounts for non US customers and was told that it was a top priority for this year. This could be part of the reason for dropping the Palm service, to consentrate on expanding their email/web service. Does anyone know of a company that already offers a cash transaction service similar to PayPal, but for International residents?
Closing account
I will be closing my account pending their e-mail response. Why access PayPal from a phone? Three lines of text and a scroll bar dont compare with a Palm. Data entry on a phone is crazy! Nokia is an investor. It makes you wonder...
Why?!!
I'll stop using this service as soon as I find another similar service. PayPal cannot be trusted any more.
Bad Move
PayPal used to be a great service until x.com came along. Eliminating Palm sync at this point in time is ludicrous.
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I've used the app for as long as it has been around...never had a problem and it worked perfectly every time. I can't believe that they couldn't easily continue support with the current app and not spend any money making it better. It was simple and elegant and doesn't need enhancements, just needs to be supported!
PayPal has competitors and you'd better believe I will be using them for other web-based transactions after this doublecross.