Rachel M. Murray
Well, sadly you just lost a customer.
So I treated myself to a new Palm the other day - a Treo680 - because I need a phone and a new PDA. I was an avid fan of the Handspring Visor a while back, and one of the best experiences I had was using AvantGo on the subway on the way home from work to catch up on blogs and whatnot. This was pre-Bloglines days, and the notion of reading blogs in, what, 2001, was still 'new'. So with a new Palm product one of the first things I thought of was, "good, let's see what AvantGo is like now'. And the issue isn't necessarily cost - if I love a web service enough, I'll pay for it - just ask the folks at Flickr ;) If I like a brand - like AvantGo - I'll support it... if you give me a way to support it, like, oh, I don't know, having a version for my operating system.
Sadly I found this screen this morning. No software, no support - basically abandonware. They've got a version for OS 8 (!?) and 9 that I suppose I could try installing, but I'm kind of surprised by this. No Mac support whatsoever. I know I'm an insane Cupertino lovin' Apple junkie and all around evangelist (and possibly apologist) for Team Think Different, but even if I wasn't, I'm trying to figure out the business logic (or lack thereof) for abandoning such a huge segment of the population who'd use the product. What, does developing Mac products cost too much? At the time I was using AvantGo maybe 5 years ago it was just beginning to be the start of the Apple Renaissance. We've subsequently had iMacs, iPods, iBooks, MacBookPros as well as countless upgrades in the mobile smartphone and PDA space... and yet AvantGo somehow felt it 'prudent' (or whatever business value) to discontinue support for a product that could have kept its customer base? Say what you will for Apple's operating system market share - surely in this post-iPod economy you can't say "well, their market share is just too....small".
In the end I'll look at the alternatives - maybe download one of them, or see what kind of offline scenario I can hook up. But thanks, AvantGo, for being 'just another company that abandons its users' - in this case, Mac users. I guess that just means Markspace can steal 'em away then...
I'm sure AvantGo is still a good product - it's just sad to see a company join the ranks of Mac abandonware companies. Doesn't have to happen, doesn't have to be that way. Adios, amigo. Would have loved to have used your product again - if you had let me.
Well, sadly you just lost a customer.
So I treated myself to a new Palm the other day - a Treo680 - because I need a phone and a new PDA. I was an avid fan of the Handspring Visor a while back, and one of the best experiences I had was using AvantGo on the subway on the way home from work to catch up on blogs and whatnot. This was pre-Bloglines days, and the notion of reading blogs in, what, 2001, was still 'new'. So with a new Palm product one of the first things I thought of was, "good, let's see what AvantGo is like now'. And the issue isn't necessarily cost - if I love a web service enough, I'll pay for it - just ask the folks at Flickr ;) If I like a brand - like AvantGo - I'll support it... if you give me a way to support it, like, oh, I don't know, having a version for my operating system.
Sadly I found this screen this morning. No software, no support - basically abandonware. They've got a version for OS 8 (!?) and 9 that I suppose I could try installing, but I'm kind of surprised by this. No Mac support whatsoever. I know I'm an insane Cupertino lovin' Apple junkie and all around evangelist (and possibly apologist) for Team Think Different, but even if I wasn't, I'm trying to figure out the business logic (or lack thereof) for abandoning such a huge segment of the population who'd use the product. What, does developing Mac products cost too much? At the time I was using AvantGo maybe 5 years ago it was just beginning to be the start of the Apple Renaissance. We've subsequently had iMacs, iPods, iBooks, MacBookPros as well as countless upgrades in the mobile smartphone and PDA space... and yet AvantGo somehow felt it 'prudent' (or whatever business value) to discontinue support for a product that could have kept its customer base? Say what you will for Apple's operating system market share - surely in this post-iPod economy you can't say "well, their market share is just too....small".
In the end I'll look at the alternatives - maybe download one of them, or see what kind of offline scenario I can hook up. But thanks, AvantGo, for being 'just another company that abandons its users' - in this case, Mac users. I guess that just means Markspace can steal 'em away then...
I'm sure AvantGo is still a good product - it's just sad to see a company join the ranks of Mac abandonware companies. Doesn't have to happen, doesn't have to be that way. Adios, amigo. Would have loved to have used your product again - if you had let me.