Adios, Motricity

After making a mess of one of the best mobile software portals, Motricity retreats to the west coast and dumps consumers for content and service providers.

Motrcity has decided to leave their direct to consumer businesses behind as they move to the west coast and engage in business with content providers, mobile operators, and businesses willing to contract with the company to deliver mobile “portals, storefronts, managed web and search,…[and] messaging gateway services”.  (Read the press release)

In addition to ruining 2008 for the 250 employees who are getting laid off, Motricity decided that it would be a great idea to ruin the best online Palm software store, PalmGear.com, by rolling it up into the “revamped” PocketGear.com as a going away present.  To add insult to injury, Motricity is looking to sell the PocketGear.com unit.  I’m left wondering if it was even worth rolling the two sites together at all.

Looking back in hindsight, it makes perfect sense for Motricity to have consolidated their direct to consumer software online stores, PalmGear and PocketGear.  Knowing that they were going to sell off the “non-profitable and non-core businesses”, rolling Palm and PocketGear into a single online store would make it more attractive to any company interested in buying the property.  Unfortunately for whoever the new owner is, they will see that their work has been cut out for them.  The repackaging of PocketGear.com has hurt the online retailer.

The roll up effort to migrate PalmGear.com into PockerGear wasn’t executed well.  Much of the freeware and shareware applications had disappeared for some weeks.  During that transition period, I was really turned off by entire user experience.  In addition to not being able to find the software that I was looking for, as a Mac OS X user, I found the new site deign difficult to use.  To this day, the drop down menus for device or mobile operating system selection still don’t work with FireFox 2.x.  (During the transition, to Morticity’s credit, I never lost access to the software and registration codes I purchased from the PalmGear site.)  Several months after the change over, the Palm OS software library is being represented on the site.  Alexander Pruss’ FontSmoother is featured on the main page of the site.  Great shareware applications like Tyler Faux’s LudusP are also once again available.  And the popular freeware Palm OS file manager, FileZ, from NoSleep Software is available along with some 200+ freeware titles.  However, are these efforts by Motricity to try and clean up PocketGear a bit too late?

Have the early migration issues hurt the PocketGear brand?  Speaking personally, it wasn’t until I started writing this editorial that I’ve been back to the site.  I was surprised to see that all of the Palm OS software titles I tried to find previously, were in fact, back online.  And despite the fact that for whatever reason pull down menus on the PocketGear site don’t work on my Mac, you do get a nice scrolling software listing.  I do find it odd that you must still enter your credit card information to download free applications.  People who had purchased software from the old PocketGear and PalmGear sites, once logged in, can visit the “classic” PocketGear and PalmGear software lockers to gain access to downloads and registration keys.  (Customers who don’t back up their software installers can breath easier now.)

If the company who ends up acquiring the new PocketGear.com wants my advice, I’d recommend the following steps to successfully relaunch the site.  First, address the navigation issues.  Mac users are in the minority, but there is no reason why pull down menus shouldn’t work.  (Interestingly enough, the menus do work in Safari on the Mac!)  Secondly, the PocketGear sites needs to meet with an interior decorator.  Maybe one of the many designers who appear on the design shows my wife likes to watch on the Home and Garden TV network.  The white/grey/green color scheme needs to be changes as it is uninspiring.  Lastly, any new owner needs to reach out to the old PalmGear and PocketGear customer base and send them an email welcoming them back to the new PocketGear.com.  (To be honest, I would love to see a new owner reactivate the PalmGear.com site.)

There is still hope for PocketGear.  Online ebook retailer Fictionwise has recently acquired Motricity’s ebook business, eReader.com, and has been working hard to ensure that I continue to do business with the newly combined eReader/Fictionwise.  Fictionwise has decided to start giving away eReader Pro, a softare package I had to by when I first discovered the eReader site, called Peanut Press back then.  I have also been receiving member’s newsletters from both sites with discount codes and special offers.  In the short term, these changes have had a positive impact on me.  I’ve started buying ebooks from eReader again.  I’ve also started recommending Fictionwise and eReader as great sites for all sorts of ebook titles on a variety of subjects.

I hope that I will once again be able to do the same for the new PocketGear.com.

What are your thoughts on Motricty, PocketGear.com, and Fictionwise’s recent acquisition of eReader.com?  Let us know in the 1SRC discussion forums.  Use the Discuss this article link below.