> I develop a cave survey freeware That's what I meant by special occasions.
Anyway, we have also another app (a file manager) that is limited to OS4. But again, OS5 customers constitute 90+%. I talk about the paying customers as I don't have any access to those that just download. The cracked versions of our apps are very popular in countries like Russia. (There was a user poll on one Russian forum about our viewer: majority of the users used cracked version, the rest could manage the protection differently - nobody bought it. To be fair, some of those users would pay, but the credit cards present a problem.) It is quite possible that the main pre-OS5 market is there. Does anybody have relevant marketing data? > And myself, what do I gain? No money, that's for sure, but life is not just about earning money. Despite I may sound as too business-oriented, the reverse is true. I am more driven by the product quality than by the considerations whether the programming efforts will pay back. Jan Slodicka ----- Original Message ----- From: "Luc Le Blanc" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Jan Slodicka a écrit : > > In my opinion supporting OS3- in new apps cannot bring any gain. (Maybe > except very special occasions.) Here's my 2 cents: I develop a cave survey freeware, a field where electronics are rather uncommon. Thanks to its innovative design and convenience, my program (first of its kind) is slowly reversing the cavers' avoidance of taking fragile gear underground. Most of my present users didn't even have a Palm before, they bought one just to use my program - I regularly get e-mails that confirm that. Of course, for underground use, they rather get a IIIxe on eBay than risk a T3; so I must support OS 3.x (I go down to 3.0 to cover some Palm Pilots). The PalmOne/PalmSource executives, apparently much focused on MP3, video and high-end Treos, may think glitter-less apps like mine are now irrelevant, but everyone knows how hard it is to attract a new customer - after all, my users have kept resisting PalmOne's marketing efforts. Indeed, for now, they prefer simple models with replaceable batteries (a day of caving lasts longer than a battery charge on newer models...), but after a while, I assume many will start using their Palm for things other than caving and may then decide they want something more exciting than a IIIxe. So in the end, PalmOne/PalmSource gains, but in the meantime, I must keep supporting OS 3.x. The reason these ROMs should remain available is simple: the Xerox lawsuit didn't wipe out the installed base nor exhaust the supply of brand new obsolete units. And myself, what do I gain? No money, that's for sure, but life is not just about earning money. I get to meet or know more people in the caving community worldwide, and I get invited to exclusive caving spots. That's good enough for me :) -- For information on using the Palm Developer Forums, or to unsubscribe, please see http://www.palmos.com/dev/support/forums/
