[maemo-developers] Maemo for commercial development (was Re: N810 RIP)

[From: ds]

Hallo,

I think you are quite hard to Jeffrey. I am not running a business with
NIT, but I have an open source project running. And I love my project,
and I like to have a lot of people using it. I think this was the idea
of Nokia to open the platform. They want us developers. The realy did a
lot of work to support us. And if Jeffrey tells them, all this work is
of no use to him, if he has the uncertencies (and to a lower extend this
is true for me to, as I am thinking of programming open source games and
try to decide for what platform, and I am not feeling this platform is
very alive at the moment) Nokia should be happy about this information
(and I think they are).

I think you got my point ...

Detlef

Am Freitag, den 30.01.2009, 08:46 +0000 schrieb Sebastian 'CrashandDie'
Lauwers:
> On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 7:06 AM, Quim Gil <quim.gil at nokia.com> wrote:
> > Hi,
> 
> Hi Quim,
> 
> Thanks for taking the time to answer what nearly was flamebait.
> 
> >> Nokia opened their
> >> platform to encourage developers to contribute their expertise, but their
> >> capriciousness and opacity about their hardware roadmap are tolerable only
> >> to hobbyists or companies porting software from another platform as a
> >> sideline.
> >
> > As much as I love free software and open roadmaps, I must reckon that in
> > the current times transparent hardware roadmaps are not helping
> > companies to sell devices sooner, cheaper or better.
> >
> > For companies like Nokia, the ultimate reason behind hardware roadmap
> > opacity is to sell more and better, which is equivalent to increase more
> > your potential user base. Get more (and happier) users by bringing
> > better products than the competition and get more (and happier) users by
> > managing consumer expectations and media hype.
> 
> There is another point I would like to stress here. Ever since I have
> been involved, every so often, I see a rant and it just baffles me.
> These rants can be about an array of different subjects, but every
> time, it boils down to the same thing: Some people believe Nokia owes
> them something. I'm not saying Nokia need not work to keep their
> customers happy, far from it -- they wouldn't still be in business had
> they not, but I don't understand how people can even think that Nokia
> should bow before their every whim and wish.
> 
> In this particular case, the troll believes that Nokia owes him the
> assurance that he and his company will be able to develop and sell
> applications. I'm sorry, but where do your business ideas come from?
> Yes, you are a Nokia customer, and as such, you have the right to
> technical support, or software updates, but you are *not* entitled to
> some unheard of commercial agreement. The NIT is a platform, open as
> it can be, but that doesn't necessarily mean that your agreement with
> Nokia is that you will develop software, make profit from it, and
> Nokia will support you.
> 
> Let me stress this a bit more. If you were a software developer, and
> you bought the hardware device from Nokia, put your software on it,
> and then sold the device, yes, you would have a contract that entitled
> you to get heads up to the EOL of a product. You would most probably
> also have access to product lifecycles and product updates, so that
> your company could brace for the next version. But this is not what
> happens. You buy the product as an end-user. You may not use it as
> such, as you are a developer, but regardless of that, you still are
> just that. An end-user.
> 
> Apple would not justify itself if it discontinued the Mac Mini.
> Verisign did not send apologies when they stopped issuing md5-based
> certificates. Miltek did not flame at VW when they discontinued the
> Golf 3 in favour of the Golf 4. So why would anyone have the right to
> attack Nokia when they are sticking to their internal product
> lifecycle?
> 
> >> If you see only
> >> melodrama in these concerns, then perhaps you have never tried to run a
> >> business in the face of such uncertainty.
> 
> Again, if you don't see how little sense you are making -- from a
> business standpoint, I do understand your fears as Joe Blogs -- I
> doubt you should be trying to run a business. You are not a Nokia
> partner, they are not your hardware providers. You are using their
> platform to your own interest. Why would Nokia care?
> 
> Praise the day people realise we are talking to a big product company.
> Not a hardware manufacturer, not a big brother whose job is to get
> your business -- or life for that matter -- going. They will do what
> is profitable for them, and if they're not, they're idiots --
> business-wise.
> 
> Yes I know, I'm a troll as well. Sorry.
>