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Thanks for your comments--I appreciate you taking the time to post them. Here's some thoughts:

RE: "Palm OS Sales"--I agree that the carrier's role, or at least the difficulty in reaching customers directly, has had an impact in sales. Now the third party developer must go through palm-->carrier-->customer before any communication with the customer is possible.

RE: Another factor to consider...--Bundled software may have had an impact, and could have been leading to the slow decline in software sales, but something significant happened at the end of 2007 to send sales into a tailspin.

RE: Developers can embrace the centro but work is needed--Do you have any ideas on how to advertise to/reach Centro customers? All the traditional means of advertising that third party developers can employ are no longer working. Where do these Centro customers lurk? Many third party developers are smaller houses, so cannot afford mainstream advertising, such as TV ads. Software seems to be an annoyance to carriers, and not a good income stream for them, and Palm has not stepped up in terms of promoting the concept of Centro software. Carriers and Palm also seem to want a piece of the software pie when they do get involved. It seems to be a no-win situation for the smaller dev these days.

One reason the Apple iPhone platform is so attractive to developers is that Apple will actively be promoting adding software to the device. The carriers do not get involved and the cut from Apple is minimal, as compared to other distribution methods for mobile software available today. Plus Apple will be making it easy for mainstream (i.e. not gadget enthusiasts) users to download and install the software--hopefully making it a pleasurable experience which can only spawn more software sales.

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