Smartphone and Pocket PC Magazine throws in the towel- to cover iPhone
It is with deep regret I read the news this morning that Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine will publish its final issue in November. This magazine has covered the Windows Mobile world for 11 years and I was a frequent contributor in the early days. Publisher Hal Goldstein is a good friend who had this to say:
“it is with great regret I make this announcement. We made thedecision because of the difficulty of reaching new Windows Mobilesmartphone customers, and the lack of advertising sponsorship fromMicrosoft, phone companies, and OEMs. We are a very small, self-fundedmagazine publishing company, and we did not make this decision lightly. Our focus in 2009 will be on the four scheduled iPhone Life issues. That wouldleave us time to produce a Windows Mobile issue, a Google Androidissue, a RIM Blackberry edition, or a generic Smartphone issuedepending on where the biggest need and opportunity lies. ”
That is a short statement that speaks volumes. It is sad indeed that Thaddeus must jump to iPhone coverage to make a business go of it. You will be missed my friends.
Print magazines are slowly dying off. Perhaps the better way to go is online with ads.
Woadan
Wow, that is sad.
You’d think with the constant iPhone media onslaught (most of it free from bloggers), EVERYone else would want to make sure their message kept being heard.
While I’m sorry to hear about the magazine’s demise, Im not at all surprised.
I always felt that there coverage of only small market segments; handheldPC’s then PocketPC’s, then Smartphones, etc was way too limiting. In other words, it seemed a very artificial limitation not in sync with what was happening in the marketplace at any given time…
At the same time, each time they morphed in order to cover the next big thing from MS, they in turn pissed off their ‘loyal subscribers’ who subscribed for coverage of the device they used only to find out that there device was no longer in favor and I’m sure each time that happened I’m sure some subscribers canceled or did not renew their subscriptions..
All in all, a recipe for failure it seemed to me…
Just my 2 cents….