open the kimono?

[BREWmaster]

... now that I have your attention...

It would be extremely helpful from the developer perspective to publish numbers of how many "in service" handsets exist on a per BREW version basis. These numbers should also be made available on a per carrier basis. It is certain these numbers are known, and are closely held. But it would be immensely helpful from both carrier and developer perspective to have knowledge of where the "holes" are located, i.e what handsets are not being serviced.

Please give serious consideration to this request. With most platforms one has a fundamental idea of what the installed base is. With Brew one can only look at broad swipes of journalism which state there will be "450,000 qualcomm CDMA chips shipped per day this year", with little idea if this means I should write for a moto V710 phone, or a Samsung axxx, or a yet to be defined handset.

To Qualcomm, put your best footforward. Standards wars like j2me vs. brew are always tough (beta vs vhs comes to mind). This is an especially challenging development environment, as developers are writing for dozens of handsets by potentially as many vendors. Each with microcode issues making them unique. Provide the data to allow us to make intelligent decisions.


Other opinions? or am I off base here? I'd appreciate some intelligent banter on this topic; or at least tell me it can never be.


thanks,
brian.

[charliex]

this information usually comes directly from the carriers, and is often dependant on your relationship with them, its also closely guarded since its considered useful data to competitive carriers, so its unlikley you'll ever see it publically, it usually stops at publisher level, but some developers can access it.

some of us do share the information with each other, but usually its based on an existing relationship or knowledge transfer.

[max]

If the carriers choose to release this type of information to Qualcomm, it's heavily guarded through NDAs. You'll have to ask the carrier directly. :(

[jmiller2]

... now that I have your attention...

It would be extremely helpful from the developer perspective to publish numbers of how many "in service" handsets exist on a per BREW version basis. These numbers should also be made available on a per carrier basis. It is certain these numbers are known, and are closely held. But it would be immensely helpful from both carrier and developer perspective to have knowledge of where the "holes" are located, i.e what handsets are not being serviced.



There were some numbers given at the BREW developers conference in San Diego this summer. If you looks for the docs on Qualcomm's site, you can find the top selling phones. That is at least a start.

Carriers want your apps to run on all their phones.