My long-term friend Jan Slodicka always is the first to answer my interview requests with highly meaningful and interesting statements – first come, first served.
Read on to find out what he thinks about the Palm OS economy, the sub-prime crisis and whether he will start to develop applications for the iPhone!
Please tell us more about yourself and your company!
Old TamsPalm readers know my name. I am Jan Slodicka from Resco. Our company deals with mobile software for several platforms and my part is Palm OS and Symbian.
Did the resuscitation of PalmGear affect your sales?
Yes, but not enough to compensate for overall decline in Palm OS sales.
Do you feel the effects of the American sub-prime crisis?
We do observe overall sales decline. I don’t know if it is related to the financial crises, although I can imagine that a lot of people are motivated to cut their spendings. Even if there might be no real reason, the mass psychology is pushing that way.
In General, are you (still) happy with the sales rates of your Palm OS products?
I said that already – not at all.
Did the fast-selling Centro affect your sales?
Centro is climbing up, the other devices are falling down. Guess, which effect is more pronounced.
Centro apparently attracts different category of users than we used to address our products. The proof: Palm TX remains #1 device selling Palm OS titles.
How long do you expect to stay in the Palm OS market?
I wished we stayed a long, long time… However, the reality forces us decrease our Palm OS efforts month by month.
An example:
Resco Explorer received Handango award for 2008 as one of 4-5 Palm OS applications. It used to be a big success, connected with a lot of free advertising and huge increase of sales.
This year? Try to find any mentions about Handango Champion awards. Impact on our sales is zero.
Do you plan any new Palm OS products?
No. But this need not to be interpreted as a direct consequence of the current crises. We have enough titles and despite they are more or less #1 in their respective categories, there is enough space for improving them
Indeed, if nothing else, a respectable Resco Explorer upgrade is under works. And if the users will vote for us by purchasing our products, we shall add more in the future.
Do you see any future for Nova?
No idea. Delay by delay, no serious information etc.
Look, I am working with Pocket PC, too – although it’s not my main platform. (Yet.) Despite I am used to desktop Windows, PPC interface, handling, etc. comes me too tedious when comparing to the simple Palm OS concepts. I think, this cannot be a mass device – even if they attract the enterprise sphere. There is a chance for Nova and lots of people feel nostalgic about past Palm glory, but at present it looks like that the other platforms are filling the gap faster.
What is your future platform of choice?
We are seriously considering to try business solutions on the PPC platform.
We at Resco use these categories: PPC shareware, PPC games, PPC developers tools, Palm OS, Symbian. (iPhone will be added soon.) Out of these areas the considerable growth achieved only Symbian (but on a very low level) and devs solutions. This indicates are future choice.
Anything you would like to add?
There is an interesting activity that started by my trials to write a practical document for Palm OS users that help the users to use their Palm devices better. Of course, I started with areas that related to our products, but know a broader community is forming and the outcome might be interesting. The guys deserve support and I am going to ask for it both you, Tam, and your readers.
The link: http://www.1src.com/forums/showthread.php?t=147563
P.S. Most Resco apps are excellent. We have them all in the TamsShop – hit the URL below for a list:
TamsShop – Resco applications for Palm OS
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