ESD-Union: Handango, PalmGear & Co Beware!

Colin Dunstan · 08-15-2004, 05:51 AM

I read first about it at Shaun's PDA247: The ESD Monopoly. ESD stands for Electronic Sales Distributor and includes portals such as Handango, pdassi, Smartphone.net, Palmgear, and Pocketgear.

ESD-Union was created as a mechanism to make the public aware of the evil roots that have started to corrupt the ESD sites; and, how it is affecting the people that you, as a consumer rely on for your software within your handheld device. Unfortunately, there are a lot of secrets that are never told. Now they will be.

Did you notice that the ESD market has been consolidating, and that Handango and PowerbyHand are now the two dominating ESD companies? Did you know that the ESD margin (the part of the total revenue of sold software the ESD receives) increased from 20% in 1999 to 40% in 2004?

What is your take on ESD? Do you think PDA software developers should avoid ESD in future?

gadgetguru · 08-15-2004, 11:48 AM

It's about time someone takes a stand. 40% is too much and on products that require almost no stocking costs (except bandwidth).

ESD will always thrive, what we need a few more ESD. Too much ESD and it gets too confusing, but too little, and this is what happens, the ESD will either squeeze the developers or the consumers (remember the time when Palmgear put freewares at the tailend of any searches then).

I thought we may have a contender then with PDAGreen, but not too soon, Palmgear parent bought it up. We need another one.

BTW, Aaron might want to change that Monopoly logo, Hasbro will not be happy with that one...

Alexander Turcic · 08-16-2004, 06:03 AM

40%? That is insane. I feel sorry for all the small software developers now.

Colin Dunstan · 08-16-2004, 06:24 PM

I got this first from 1src.com: Aaron Ardiri runs ESD-Union. He has started voicing his plea through a private forum for Palm entrepreneures since Saturday, August 14.

An email has already been sent to the ESD companies to notify them about the ESD-Union. Several developers have decided to support the cause including Mobile Wizardry, Ardirii.com, Tiny Stocks, Kickoo, PocketCraft, ExoSypen Studios, GNU-Designs, Ralf Zimmermann, Aona Systems, and Crossroads Software. Developers who wish to support the union can email Aaron at webmaster(at)esd-union.com.

Aaron Ardiri · 08-18-2004, 02:48 PM

http://www.esd-union.com/board/

this topic has been quite hot over the last few days on a number of websites; why not voice your opinion such that it can be centralized and kept for archive purposes in a single place.

there is also a voting option to give postive or negative feedback about the cause - dont miss it!

Alexander Turcic · 08-18-2004, 05:31 PM

Celebrity guest today! Hi Aaron, nice to see you here

08-15-2004, 05:51 AM	#1
Colin Dunstan Is papyrophobic! Posts: 1,926 Karma: 1009999 Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: USA Device: Dell Axim	ESD-Union: Handango, PalmGear & Co Beware! I read first about it at Shaun's PDA247: The ESD Monopoly. ESD stands for Electronic Sales Distributor and includes portals such as Handango, pdassi, Smartphone.net, Palmgear, and Pocketgear. ESD-Union was created as a mechanism to make the public aware of the evil roots that have started to corrupt the ESD sites; and, how it is affecting the people that you, as a consumer rely on for your software within your handheld device. Unfortunately, there are a lot of secrets that are never told. Now they will be. Did you notice that the ESD market has been consolidating, and that Handango and PowerbyHand are now the two dominating ESD companies? Did you know that the ESD margin (the part of the total revenue of sold software the ESD receives) increased from 20% in 1999 to 40% in 2004? What is your take on ESD? Do you think PDA software developers should avoid ESD in future?

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08-15-2004, 11:48 AM	#2
gadgetguru Addict Posts: 214 Karma: 6370 Join Date: May 2003 Location: Asia Device: Tungsten T5	It's about time someone takes a stand. 40% is too much and on products that require almost no stocking costs (except bandwidth). ESD will always thrive, what we need a few more ESD. Too much ESD and it gets too confusing, but too little, and this is what happens, the ESD will either squeeze the developers or the consumers (remember the time when Palmgear put freewares at the tailend of any searches then). I thought we may have a contender then with PDAGreen, but not too soon, Palmgear parent bought it up. We need another one. BTW, Aaron might want to change that Monopoly logo, Hasbro will not be happy with that one...

08-16-2004, 06:03 AM	#3
Alexander Turcic Fully Converged Posts: 18,171 Karma: 14021202 Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Switzerland Device: Too many to count here.	40%? That is insane. I feel sorry for all the small software developers now.

08-16-2004, 06:24 PM	#4
Colin Dunstan Is papyrophobic! Posts: 1,926 Karma: 1009999 Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: USA Device: Dell Axim	I got this first from 1src.com: Aaron Ardiri runs ESD-Union. He has started voicing his plea through a private forum for Palm entrepreneures since Saturday, August 14. An email has already been sent to the ESD companies to notify them about the ESD-Union. Several developers have decided to support the cause including Mobile Wizardry, Ardirii.com, Tiny Stocks, Kickoo, PocketCraft, ExoSypen Studios, GNU-Designs, Ralf Zimmermann, Aona Systems, and Crossroads Software. Developers who wish to support the union can email Aaron at webmaster(at)esd-union.com.

08-18-2004, 02:48 PM	#5
Aaron Ardiri Nameless Being	http://www.esd-union.com/board/ this topic has been quite hot over the last few days on a number of websites; why not voice your opinion such that it can be centralized and kept for archive purposes in a single place. there is also a voting option to give postive or negative feedback about the cause - dont miss it!

08-18-2004, 05:31 PM	#6
Alexander Turcic Fully Converged Posts: 18,171 Karma: 14021202 Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Switzerland Device: Too many to count here.	Celebrity guest today! Hi Aaron, nice to see you here

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