Re: Colorimeters and third-party developer support
Re: Colorimeters and third-party developer support
- Subject: Re: Colorimeters and third-party developer support
- From: MARK SEGAL <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2011 07:19:10 -0700 (PDT)
"Reality" is perceived by different people in different ways depending on, amongst other things, at which end of the spectrum they happen to sit, what their interests are, and how these matters affect them personally. While some peoples' reality is other peoples' snark, we'll see over time which perspective prevails.And if there is really critical misinformation out here, maybe the company needs to do more to correct that. Over the years of corporate history, the demise of bigger fish than XRite started when they just couldn't truly and seriously see beyond themselves and their self-perceived immediate interests.
Mark
________________________________
From: Tom Lianza <email@hidden>
To: Ernst Dinkla <email@hidden>; Karl Koch <email@hidden>; email@hidden
Sent: Friday, August 19, 2011 9:55:03 AM
Subject: Re: Colorimeters and third-party developer support
To all,
It's hard to respond to so many erroneous opinions at one time, but I will
make some general comments.
1. OEM products. When an OEM purchases a product from us, it is their
product. There may be manufacturing differences, there may be firmware
differences. Most important, X-rite cannot make a change to the product
without specific agreement with the OEM. We can, and often do, make changes
in the retail line of products. OEMs make specific volume commitments and
often invest a significant amount of R&D and supply chain cost to implement
the product in their product line. They also service the product. Some
display vendors put the calibration software in the display. They have
every right to insist on absolute customization. When I designed the Sony
Artisan hardware I had to use a completely different strategy for
suppression of static because their standards exceeded the FCC and European
standards of the time. We also had to re-engineer the cable so that the
insulation could be physically consumed. This required a change in the
production techniques of the cable and very specific testing for impurities.
OEM's invest heavily in their products and they need to protect that
investment. They are not screwing the consumer. Comments like that
indicate a total ignorance of the position that OEM's are in.
2. The small developer- Independent developers are an important part of our
business. The question is: who supports the hardware product? A developer
like Graeme Gill "cracks" our products at "arm's length". In the US, this
is completely legal and has been defended in court many times (the DOS BIOS
is a good example of how this worked). He applies his technology to a
product that was legally purchased through retail channels. What would be
illegal would be to make copies of our software and sell it using the
cracked technology or to ship our drivers, unlicensed, to the field. In the
life a given hardware product, independent software developers will make
many upgrades and not all of them will be free. We make money on hardware
once, and that piece of hardware is an "enabler" for many other companies
over the course of its lifetime.
I believe that there will be a mechanism for independent developers to use
the latest technology colorimeter, purchased through retail channels, but I
need to confirm that. Understand that the latest technology products are
significantly different than the earlier products and do require a certain
amount of training to implement properly. It's not in anyone's best interest
to open the technology to everyone who thinks they are a developer until we
understand the support and training costs. Not everyone is a Karl or
Graeme. Is it in the consumers best interests to have poor software
implementations of new hardware technology? Should we make exceptions for
certain developers who may have the knowledge and not allow other developers
into the fray? How do we make sure that an iSV product doesn't kill a
retail product by overlaying different dll's or packages? How do we cover
release of information that is currently under application for patent? How
do we inform ISV's of changes that are warranted by changes in operating
systems. How do we justify the costs of system support to the ISV community
given that we make money only on the sale of the hardware item? There is
nothing nefarious here, it just takes time and resources which are not
available at the moment.
Third hand comments about internal corporate policy (which, by the way is
probably covered by NDA) such as those from Mr Wagner, should not generate
the frenzy of nonsense that we have seen on this list. Snarky and
uninformed comments like those of Mr. Segal add nothing to a solution to the
issues of ISV support. I hope that you all have a better understanding of
the situation and we can end this mindless thread started with third hand
information taken out of the context of reality.....
Regards,
Tom Lianza
On 8/19/11 6:25 AM, "Ernst Dinkla" <email@hidden> wrote:
> On 08/19/2011 09:57 AM, Karl Koch wrote:
>>
>> *snip*
>>
>>> If the communication interface for the Dreamcolor versions could be cracked
>>> I
>>> suppose that ccmxmake could adapt the filtering sufficiently for other
>>> monitor
>>> types. There may even be some experience on adaption with the NEC variety.
>>
>> <irony> I´m not quite sure, cracking software or communication interfaces is
>> quite legal</irony>
>> Looks like that´s what had happened in ccmxmake, bt it can well be that
>> Argyll
>> has permission to do so.
>
> Let me rephrase that to: "an alternative driver created for".
>
>> *snip*
>>
>>> The current policy is bad for consumers and is anticompetitive.
>>
>> I don´t think so! On the contrary: This policy (with which I don´t agree
>> either,
>> but it´s X-Rite´s decision and none of my business) will encourage
>> competitors
>> to develop, manufacture and sell new instruments without these restrictions.
>> And
>> thus we will have a competitive situation not only in the field of software,
>> but
>> also in hardware. This will break X-Rite´s monopoly and they have begged
>> for
>> it ;-)
>
> My thoughts too. Too much good CM software around that needs compatible
> hardware. What came to the surface in hard- and software so far from
> the GM + M + X merges is not convincing. Including more restrictions on
> its use + applying absurd new restrictions on the software it had to
> replace. What looked like a potential monopolist some years ago could be
> a niche player soon enough with this policy. A policy that Apple might
> exploit successfully but not X-rite.
>
> A redesign of for example the SpectroCam could have a bright future,
> bundling it with a nice colorimeter for monitor calibration would
> overcome the US patent issue too. Add something like Argyll's ccmxmake
> and that bundle delivers more than the sum of two devices. Barbieri is
> still alive, the Spyder colorimeters improved a lot and with a Chinese
> CM software company running now it would be surprising if there would
> not appear some hardware from that part of the world too.
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