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Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

At some point, Palm starts looking even less rational, because the cost of the strategy they're pursuing exceeds the cost of just building their own sync system.

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Writing a cross-platform media management system that everyone already uses is easier than changing a few constants in their firmware source code and rebuilding it?

No, that's a straw man argument and I suspect you know that.

RIM "syncs" with iTunes using a standalone program. It is harder to provide an excellent user experience with two programs than with one, but it is doable.

Palm is free-riding on Apple's software, and whatever you may think of that, they are also providing their users with an unreliable user experience that they have no business advertising as a key feature. They're also putting in lots of effort to do that, effort which could be spent on a seamless iTunes sync that didn't rely on USB hackery.

You're way off here.

The article suggests that the workaround took ~40 hours.

Plus, it's not just "free-riding" on Apple's software, it's using Apple's music distribution hub.

You may be thinking it's as simple as writing a winamp skin and having a "PalmTunes" installer disc come with each Pre, but it's not...

They do not have to write a whole media software package. They can write a program that does the sync.

The points you're making here have nothing to do with my argument.

I'm not going to go back and forth with you. If that's true, it's self-evident.

> The article suggests that the workaround took ~40 hours.

Actually, this is a reference to Palm saying they will continue making the Pre sync with iTunes until a fix would take more than 40 hours to implement. They said the last fix took just a few minutes, and I'm sure this one took about the same amount of time (add one more line of code to change the Manufacturer ID in addition to the Vendor ID when media sync is selected).

The free advertising this generates probably earns more than the engineering time costs.

They get a lot more column space in traditional publications for sure, but they also get a lot of talk from people that the sync keeps not working. Customer satisfaction and stability are better.

Given the current situation, could a person really recommend a Palm pre to a friend who wants and a device with and easy sync to iTunes. You know you will get a call right after Apple updates its software. Plus, if you tell your friend to buy a third party solution (missing sync), the Palm pre version is in danger of breaking because of Palm's current antics.

I think companies need to look at stability in their software / hardware more then ever. This simple, reliably solution is often a better selling point then the massive feature monster that is hard to use or unreliable.

And what's the message they're hoping to communicate? "Look, everyone, Apple's locked up the media distribution market"? Because that message gains sales for Apple in the real world.

You really think this is good publicity?

I don't think it is.

I think it makes them look like Apple's product offering is so powerful that the only way to compete is for Palm to hack their way into it.

I also think it conveys the message that at any given time a key feature of the platform could stop working.

-2 for stating an insightful technical opinion? Seriously HN?

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