$149 for a Touchpad if you sign up as a developer

https://developer.palm.com/content/resources/develop/developer_device_program.html

by cygwin98 • 15 years ago

115 95 15 years ago

developer.palm.com

Given the indecision of the HP board as of late, how can they expect developers to make any significant effort to develop for their platform?

tiles• 15 years ago

According to Palm Developer relations, because there's money to be made on an uncrowded platform. There are plenty of existing TouchPad owners thanks to the firesale, and those that use their devices are willing to pay to improve their experience (since the experience won't likely be improved by HP themselves long-term). And you might have more success short-term by selling smaller apps on the Palm Marketplace than you would fighting for space in Android's.

newman314• 15 years ago

There are at least 4 million devices....

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ApB67S7ETz4WdHd...

staktrace• 15 years ago

This is actually not a bad plan on Palm's part. Probably the only last-ditch plan I've seen that has a shot of working.

phillmv• 15 years ago

Am I the only person to think that this is a patently ridiculous line of thinking?

CWIZO5• 15 years ago

Great ... I can't register for a developer account because I'm from Slovenia. Guess it's time to move to Somalia so I'll be able to register :\

meric• 15 years ago

Don't be too disappointed, but the page only mentions developers from North America and Europe can get a coupon.

That means Somalia would be out, too.

Now why can't Australian developers have coupons, too?

US, UK, Canada, but not Australia?

CWIZO5• 15 years ago

Still ... Slovenia is in Europe :)

fosk• 15 years ago

fyi Slovenia IS in Europe

wanorris• 15 years ago

Blackberry gave away Playbooks to anyone who developed an app for it, which resulted in a lot of "developers" who produced low-quality, minimally useful apps.

Is there some quality control that will limit who counts as a developer for the TouchPad? If not, I expect this will have a similar result. And really, even if they get real mobile developers, it may result in some half-hearted ports unless it becomes clear at some point that the platform has some kind of future.

cgislason• 15 years ago

The difference between free and $150 might be enough to prevent a good chunk of those apps.

tectonic• 15 years ago

"So what does the TouchPad cost to build? The teardown by iSuppli pegs the cost of the components used in the 16 gigabyte version, which sells for $499 at retail, at $306.65. Meanwhile, the 32GB version, which sells for $599, costs $328.65 to build. (The difference, obviously, is memory.)"

http://allthingsd.com/20110703/hps-touchpad-teardown-its-dee...

stfu• 15 years ago

HP seems to have no mandatory development requirements, meaning a development such as with the Playbook is somewhat unlikely. Also I suspect that RIM wanted to push with this move more the market'ability of their devices in regards to to the availability of apps and developers than to have actually useful apps produced.

firefoxman13• 15 years ago

Well, there are a lot of crappy apps in the catalog already.

joelhaasnoot• 15 years ago

Palm and then HP has a very long history of giving cheap and heavily discounted devices to developers for development purposes. I've been registered as a developer since, 2003 or 4, and it was common practice with the Treos.

rhizome2• 15 years ago

They should recast the program to send out the tablets as loaners, then forgive the debt for the developers who make actually decent apps. A curated giveaway.

jarek• 15 years ago

And how exactly would you define a "decent app" in a way that wouldn't be absurd or totally not useful and wouldn't give you ton of grief if a developer tried to challenge your decision? It's essentially the iOS App Store problem except you're mailing around physical hardware to boot.

shadowmeld• 15 years ago

From the looks of it, your TaxID number.

Urgo• 15 years ago

I already got my touchpad (running android now) during the fire sale but this is awesome for anyone who missed it.

Anyone know much it costs to sign up as a developer though to get this deal? It says you need paypal so I'm guessing there is a cost but it doesn't actually list how much it is until you sign up.

zerovox2• 15 years ago

Free at the moment, they say they have waved their fees for the time being, which is unsurprising given the state of WebOS

toni• 15 years ago

Is there a way to register as an individual? It seems that you must have a company to be able to register in developer program, right?

firefoxman13• 15 years ago

There are 2 types of developer accounts. One is free and one is $99. I think you have to have the $99 account to put your apps in the catalog, but the other account gives you access to all the tools and dev resources.

Side note, how is your touchpad's battery life? Mine surprisingly sucked.

ryanwatkins2• 15 years ago

Both account types are free, and have always been free for webOS.

https://developer.palm.com/index.php?option=com_user&vie...

There is no fee required to distribute in the catalog, for either a paid or free app.

zerovox2• 15 years ago

They seem to be sold out in UK and US online stores at the moment though.

fernandose• 15 years ago

Yeah I'm interested to know how this works too. Because according to the link, HP give you a discount coupon, but where do we use the coupon?

ambiate2• 15 years ago

Terms and conditions: "Coupon codes are not valid anywhere but the HP online store, and may not be used for any products intended for resale or OEM activity as defined by HP, on employee purchase programs, retroactively on previously purchased items, or for cash redemption."

iletina• 15 years ago

Why do you need to give a company name in order to register as a developer? Does anyone know if the deal is available to people who have just signed up?

aaront• 15 years ago

I just put my name in there.

crikli6• 15 years ago

Maybe I'm dumb. Well, I'm definitely dumb. But where the heck to I go to buy this thing? Can't find where on the HP site to do so.

ambiate2• 15 years ago

I would assume the "coupon" is actually a private link to the HP store with a promo code associated with it. The promo code decays after it is used for a single purchase.

crikli6• 15 years ago

This seems like a really clunky way to do things. I have to a) create an account if I haven't already b) send an email and c) somehow redeem that coupon.

They already have my PayPal info...why not set up the program to integrate with my developer account so that I can click a link there to make the purchase.

I wonder if this inefficient process is indicative of how HP operates; if so it's pretty clear why they're on the ropes.

dpapathanasiou5• 15 years ago

The fine print on that page says:

"Coupon codes are not valid anywhere but the HP online store"

crikli6• 15 years ago

Right. Read that. But where in the HP online store is there a "buy now" button? I can buy all kinds of accessories, but no touchpad.

Remember, I'm dumb. I mean, I write PHP, fergawdsakes. I'm going to have to be led by the hand here.

mgcross2• 15 years ago

Probably won't see it any time soon on the store: http://twitter.com/#!/BrynaAtHP/status/132202507966496768

You have to send an email including your developer user name to request a coupon.

sciurus• 15 years ago

Here's what HP emailed me on October 28th: "As you signed up for updates on the HP TouchPad, we wanted you to know that we are officially out of stock. Some retailers will have some stock available, but our online inventory is depleted."

paulsilver• 15 years ago

I had some hassle filling in the final part of the registration form with my company details, this might help if you're have the same problems:

If you're in the UK and registering with your Limited company, you need to put your company name in the "Tax Identification Number" field, and your VAT number in the "Registration Number" field (if you're registered for VAT, obviously.)

If you're not sure what your VAT number is internationally, you can check it here: http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/vieshome.do?select...

For the UK, you have to put "GB " in front of your VAT number.

83457• 15 years ago

"You will use your PayPal account to pay HP for things like PayPal Account update fees and annual developer membership fees (free for a limited time)."

I'm signing up now but will likely cancel just to avoid any big charges in the future.

brianbreslin• 15 years ago

Now semi off topic, aren't they killing webos? Why would you still want to become a developer? The $150 price is a good deal though...

crikli6• 15 years ago

Technical curiosity?

viraptor• 15 years ago

It's a good device in general and with android coming in in the future, knowing what I know now, I'd probably still buy it (got one already, so I don't have to).

morsch• 15 years ago

So are they still making a loss at that price? iSuppli seems to think so, they estimate about USD 300 in costs per Touchpad. But if that's true, why did they resume production in late August? And now a developer program for a EOL platform? It all seems sort of bizarre.

X-Istence3• 15 years ago

This is a musing of mine, so it may be completely wrong.

HP most likely "resumed production" so that they could clear out any remaining stock. I can imagine that they had warehouses full of parts that were just not put together yet and had already paid suppliers for. These would have been written off and either sold back to the vendor or been destroyed. Also, it is entirely possible that HP had a contract with their manufacturer for a certain time period and if they broke that contract they would be out X where X is bigger than Y which is the amount it would cost to build and ship these devices at a loss.

This isn't the first time that I've seen a company do a "last run" to clear out the remaining parts before shutting down a product for good.

endlessvoid94• 15 years ago

I clicked the devmarketing@palm.com link, and it apparently executes some javascript to unencrypt the actual email address you're supposed to email.

It didn't work, though. I tried Chrome, Safari, and Firefox. I just emailed devmarketing@palm.com directly -- anyone have any insight into this? I see no errors in my Javascript console, but when I paste the JS call in directly into the console, the return value is undefined.

mgcross2• 15 years ago

It seems to execute a mailto to the same email address with a subject of "Developer Device Program NA TouchPad"

jdhzzz2• 15 years ago

Yes, that is what it did for me when I clicked it. It brought up a new email in Thunderbird (remember that?) filled in as you describe.

drKarl• 15 years ago

Or "Developer Device Program EMEA TouchPad" for Europe.

timothya• 15 years ago

The JavaScript turns it into the address "mailto:devmarketing@palm.com?subject=Developer%20Device%20Program%20NA%20TouchPad" (the same email address, but auto-sets the Subject line). It then immediately sets the page location to this link, and the function returns nothing (aka undefined) which should trigger the browser to do what it would ordinarily do when you click an email link but with the revised address.

nvictor• 15 years ago

what? where is the promised $99 good?

X-Istence3• 15 years ago

This is for the 32 GB TouchPad which sold at the fire-sale for $150. The $99 one was for a 16 GB TouchPad which apparently they no longer have.

aquark2• 15 years ago

May be available to Canadians, but you appear to need a 'tax identification number' from the IRS to open the account.

"Form W-8BEN should be completed by all Non-US developers planning to make their applications available for sale to US customers/end-users. The form and instructions may be found at the following IRS website ...."

Fortunately the form accepted '-' as a 'valid' number ... we'll see if they try and validate it later.

shaggyfrog2• 15 years ago

I'm a Canadian developer and it was no problem getting one of those from the IRS. In fact, I did it over the phone. It was surprisingly painless.

aquark2• 15 years ago

My concern is what I'd be signing up for by having one -- does it mean I need to file some US tax paperwork annually even if there is no income?

weekendlogic• 15 years ago

see: https://developer.palm.com/content/resources/develop/faq.htm...

Q: I’m a non-US developer and trying to register for a Developer Account. Do I need a U.S. taxpayer ID? A: If you have a US taxpayer ID, please use this number. If you only have a foreign tax ID number you can enter your foreign tax ID number in the Tax Identification Number field.

i.e. For a Canadian individual (like me), you can use your SIN, if you want. Or use gibberish and figure it out later if there are any problems.

richtaur• 15 years ago

Going to be really difficult for Palm to compete in the tablet market given their industry instability. They contacted us about getting our game onto an HP TouchPad -- then promptly announced their discontinuation (???).

Plus, Google has already given me a free Galaxy Tab (for attending Google I/O). Among that and my iPad, it's pretty easy to guess which I'll be hacking on.

ra• 15 years ago

Registered developers in the US, Canada, and Europe will be able to purchase up to two TouchPads at a discount while supplies last.

No love for developers in Australia, New Zealand

kwamenum86• 15 years ago

This is, at the very least, and opportunity for arbitrage.

chokma• 15 years ago

Hm, you can only register as a developer if you have a Paypal account - and the Paypal page you are directed to does not work. Well, perhaps it is for the best, given Paypal's history.

chaostheory• 15 years ago

The thing that makes me hesitant about this is that it requires a paypal account.

ImprovedSilence• 15 years ago

Has anyone emailed them for a coupon? And if so, has anyone heard back from HP yet?

maratd• 15 years ago

Yup, I emailed. Didn't hear back yet.

crikli6• 15 years ago

Nor have I.

Osiris3• 15 years ago

Looking at the page for the new TonidoPlug2, I wonder if the $150 HP Touchpad could be used as a server?

mannicken• 15 years ago

It's funny how the title reads as:

"[THEY WILL GIVE YOU] $149 for a Touchpad if you sign up as a developer [THAT YOU CAN ACTUALLY JUST TAKE IN CASH]."

When the reality is: "This Touchpad costs $149 if you go through a bunch of complicated forms, give away your info.. oh, and in reality, it costs like a lot less than $149 even so we'll still be making a shitload of money from it."

tucosan• 15 years ago

Did anybody actually receive a coupon for a device from hp?

I sent a request with my developer account name in the email body, but haven't received a coupon yet. Or is this some kind of lottery again?

$149 for a Touchpad if you sign up as a developer

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