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Is Epocrates Clueless? Or is HP Failing to Court Big-Name webOS Developers?

By: Dan Ramirez, 12/7/2010 7:53 pm | 42 comments

With a clinic full of patients, my phone started going crazy with text messages from Qasim, a physician friend of mine. Qasim and I became friends over an unlikely kinship we shared: our love for webOS. Since then, he has moved on to the iPhone4 which he got for free in his practice (but we’ve remained friends somehow). His text was direct: ”Epocrates just emailed me. They’re cutting support for webOS.”

Epocrates is a very famous quick-drug reference for healthcare professionals. It’s probably one of my most often-used apps in my practice. To say this news was a shock is quite the understatement.

He forwarded me the email, posted below:

My first reaction was, “Is Epocrates totally clueless?? Don’t they know that HP is a massive company and has all these amazing plans for webOS?? And of course there’s ‘relatively low interest’ in the Epocrates webOS platform… there’s hardly any webOS users! But that’s bound to change under HP… can’t they see that?” … Oh and I really loved the way they advertised iOS and Android to webOS users. Nice twist of the dagger there, guys.

But then I got to thinking: something’s not right. Why would Epocrates announce that they’re pulling their app from webOS altogether in May 2011? Their roadmap sounded so definite. At the very least, HP will have bolstered “the webOS” significantly by May 2011… right? Surely HP would have pulled out all the stops to prevent this from happening. Or are they slipping in their effort to court big name developers? They keep talking about all this movement going on from within HP. But from the outside, things. Are. Moving. At. A. Glacial. Pace. … Perhaps that’s what turned off some of the devs at Epocrates.

… Or do they know something that we don’t? Perhaps in their communications with HP, they have been informed that HP will be taking webOS in a different direction than all of us are anticipating? Finally, could this simply be another DataViz debacle? (Shortly after it was announced that Documents To Go would not be developed for webOS, it was announced that DataViz Inc had been bought out by RIM.) Only time will tell.

Any way you slice it, this is a blow for webOS and a blow for any prospect webOS has of being a leading platform for medical applications, superior multitasking be damned. As a physician, I am deeply saddened and a little angry at this news. Let’s hope HP has the wherewithal to turn this whole thing around. Because for the short-to-medium term, this doc has serious doubts about a good prognosis.

[Thanks Qasim for the tip.]

About Dan Ramirez

Dan is a senior editor at webOSroundup. He is a physician in South Texas with an unbridled passion for webOS. He is very active on Twitter (@vara411) and enjoys engaging the webOS community.

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Vic

This is a deal-breaker for me, and the final nail in the webOS coffin. I was a long-time Palm user, starting with the Pilot in 1999. My transition to webOS was fueled by the potential to continue to use the many medical references that I had accumulated over years of searching. With Classic no longer supported in 2.0, and now the grand-daddy of all medical references no longer offered as of May, I am forced to move on. The online version is not viable just due to response time issues. This is a huge disappointment and I fear validates the assertions of Fox News “that webOS is “a platform with little software support, so it lacks all those attractive apps that really make Android and iPhone handsets sing — and makes them fun to use.””
Vlad

As a physician, Epocrates is one of the main applications I use. I have been with Palm since 2002 but it looks like it is time to sadly say good bye.
http://twitter.com/AboutwebOS Mark Coppock

Actually, given HP’s presence in healthcare, I’m even more surprised by this. If this were another industry, I’d say that Epocrates could simply be added to the list of developers who simply don’t see HP Palm being successful. That’s a losing bet, as has been written in quite a few editorials on this site and others, but it’s easier to predict success when you don’t have money on the line.

Given that this is healthcare, though, a very important vertical for HP, it surprises me. I can’t imagine a scenario in which someone at Epocrates didn’t reach out to someone at HP, or vice versa. And so, the prediction about them seeing something that we don’t has some weight.

Finally, the fact that Epocrates was so _final_ about the decision–not even setting aside development, as others such as Evernote have done, but cancelling it altogether–is ominous. Very disappointing.
Ryan St. Andrie

Well I don’t use it but I’m pissed they had to unleash this email moments after I wrote a decent litte article defending webOS. Couldn’t they wait 1 more day? :p
http://twitter.com/PlasticWig Joshua K

We are probably even lucky they made it for WebOS in the first place. One of the reasons why they are probably dropping it because they have it on iPhone, and that is already a large, established, profitable platform. It doesn’t matter if one is better than the other or one has this and that specs if theres already a huge mindshare for the device. The iPhone and iPad are what Palm Pilots were back in their day.
Guest

You said 2010 instead of 2011 multiple times

Dan

Gaaaah! In my fury I totally missed that. … What year is it, again? :p

Serentic

Aaaaaand Palm relentlessly kills off all its fans.

COME ON PAAAAAAAAAALM.
DigitalYout

Dan, I like you is a healthcare worker and I too utilize Epocrates more than any other resource. Hp Palm has got to pull a Microsoft and pay developers, large and small to bring apps to webOS. HP Palm need to release mind blowing hardware and pay the devs to bring apps, like last week.
Canucks Love Palm

Has anyone noticed that the palm pre 2 video is no longer available to watch on palm.com/us…. Just a heads up.
eid

This is a huge blow. I have a backup Iphone4 so I’m not without epocrates but my heart is with my Pre+. Well my plan is not up for renewal for 1 year so we’ll see how what first half of 2011 brings. HP should open its wallet up to keep epocrates which is the brandname for medical apps. (medscape isn’t even available)
Godstyle29

As a nurse, this app has been invaluable in the clinical setting. This news is maddening to say the least, as is HP/Palm’s deafening silence on the release of new devices. At this point I’d settle for an announcement of when they’re gonna have an announcement. Don’t they realize that while they’re playing it close to the vest for the sake of not divulging trade secrets or whatever, they’re hemorrhaging customers and developers. For the love of everything techy, THROW US A BONE!!!!!!

http://twitter.com/glacierwookie glacierwookie

“HP/Palm’s deafening silence on the release of new devices.” – So eloquently put, so true, and so saddening all at the same time…

Godstyle29

Thanks.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_TPBR7VGU6FS6QVEPZ6YXOBCEFQ Jacob

I think maybe Epocrates was never really interested in WebOS in the first place – and may have been looking at dropping development for Palm altogether by the time WebOS was released. After all, they never did release anything beyond a non-updating “beta” version for WebOS – and took their time doing even that. With Palm users being able to run the the PalmOS version in Classic, and only a beta version available for running natively in WebOS, they essentially manufactured a situation where there would be a “low level of interest” in Epocrates for WebOS. And now they seem to have also pulled support for running the PalmOS version in Classic (which is going away with WebOS 2.0, anyway).

Palm seems to have dropped the ball on this by not bending over backwards to keep such a big-name developer, and HP has failed to pick it up.

Anonymous

They probably don’t see the reason to develop for Palm for technical and political reasons:
Political: Too small of a mindshare to justify the development costs (not to mention Fox classified the Pre as a BAD gift this year!).
Technical: Palm’s already announced that they plan on dumping Mojo after 2011 for a currently unreleased framework.
So, if you where a big company, why would you invest development time for a declining platform that’s planning on forcing you to re-develop your application anyway? It doesn’t make business sense just now when the iPhone and Android platforms are much more successful.

http://www.facebook.com/IamDefiler Michael Lorenzo

Maybe HPalm is courting them for a buyout and then they discontinue the iPhone and Android version. ;)
http://twitter.com/JonRuinstein JonRuinstein

Who needs them? Once the webOS toaster is released, we’ll rule the world!

Mr. White

Best comment so far!
Anonymous

+ 10^9

Jhol

another sad news, hope we hear something big soon cause this is getting bleak
JMWPainter

I feel the OS itself should be enough to bring in new dev. I would rather put attention and support to those dev who want to support WebOS. Bending over backwards for those who are bissly living in ignorance are just going to wear you out because their minds are already made up. Even if one day WebOS beats iOS and Android they will still “stick to their guns” right donw to the grave of their company.

I say, “Who else want to do Epocrates job for WebOS since they don’t feel like doing it.” Lets give them a chance.

“Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.” -Author Unknown.

eid

For most apps that may be reasonable. But Epocrates has been around for years and has a good clinical team that checks its information- a collection of drs, pharmacists, nurses, etc. It took years to build and the medical community needs a reputable source of that information. A homebrew solution or small developer has to be able to guarantee the quality of the information not just the code of the app. Maybe Epocrates will open up their info to a outside developer but I doubt it. I understand supporting multiple platforms is a problem- eventually an online mobile version may be fast enough to use but not currently. It will be very difficult (impossible) to recommend a webOS device to a budding med student, nursing student, pharm student, or colleague without a native Epocrates app. For nonmedical people, epocrates does other stuff including medical education credits (CME), medical surveys, medical ads in addition to their medical app. They are even making electronic medical record .software – probably tablet.

Juan_Palm

Well, nothing new. Epocrates will return to webOS next year. Now we webOS users, may left our beloved platform with the pressure of such news?
http://twitter.com/Cringer63 Jonathan

It’s a Palm fail. I am starting to fall into the “Negative Nancy” category of webOS users as well. Five minutes ago I was just talking with my wife about getting a new phone. A month until CES, then I guess it’s easier to decide. In the meantime I am trying to fend off her desire for a Galaxy Tab. My daughter is getting a new phone, yup it’s Android because I couldn’t seriously tell my wife the Pixi was the better way to go with a straight face. Two things keep me positive, the apps I currently use and the apps I want to make. Only thing I have to hold onto to keep me interested in webOS. Even webOS 2.0 annoys me, because there is only one way to get that and I am can not afford the equal to my Sprint plan on AT&T.

http://sorli.com sorli

Understand where you are coming from, but then where to go after webOS. Is anything really that good? I’ve used IOS and I’m not impressed at all. Android has some high-points, but it is also missing in certain respects interface wise and I guess I can hack it and make it better then what comes standard and out of the box. Got me??? Sorli…

Maps

I was so frustrated with my Palm Pre I switched to an android phone and am much happier. Epocrates is not clueless, they are smart. The Pre has been a fail. It had tons of potential…too bad palm did such a poor job with it. I’ll never go back to the palm/web os platform now. Shame on Palm/HP they have just lost every customer in the health care system.

http://www.shop-pc.co.uk Rob Woods

Why dump pre, surely iOS code is easy for them to port? Angry Birds etc claim the tools make it all easy (Im no dev yet!), I’m worried about this!

WatchingHP

IMO the author has raised appropriate hypotheses to account for the SOLIDITY with which Epocrates announced their decision. I also think something is amiss here, like the author says. Who wants to spend COUNTLESS hours developing for Enyo when the market share will be tiny… Fundamentally I think further hope for timely release of a high-end 4G document friendly webOS based fon is pie in the sky, if not pie in the face. HP is killing this OS in my opinion, and it’s sad. Angry Bird award of $100k says it all- this OS is a boneless OS. (sort of a sick Epocrates joke for Epocrates x-users.) HP totally needs to get the finger out if it has any desire to stay in the fon business. The contrarian viewpoint that they need to “wait for WP7 success” is not gonna work out.
eid

Anyone up for a write-in campaign to Epocrates? I already emailed them. And posted on Palm’s forum.
I don’t know if enyo will be harder to work with than mojo. Epocrates data is mostly text and links. The interaction checker is more complicated. The major stumbling block was lack of updating mechanism. Old palm OS version had a separate system for updating. BlackBerry version from 3 years ago was kludgy and crashed alot. But I don’t know if webOS had a way to do it.

WatchingHP

No way this is going to be a customer save. HP can get up and swing if it cares.

Dan L

This is truly the end… especially if ePocrates sticks to this as their final decision. Bye bye webOS, it was fun knowing you.
Sassu

HP needs to open up webOS for other hardware vendors to create smart phones or tablet just like Android. work with Nokia
Pacran

In real news, with newly released SDKs for Android and for iOS developers can more easily integrate applications with Amazon’s cloud-based Simple Storage Service (S3), the SimpleDB database and send messages using Simple Notification Service (SNS) and Simple Queue Service (SQS). This is the kind of thing that pushes the smartphone world forward. WebOS, Pixi, and Pre meantime, are doing… meh…
Moderntimes

Uhm, anyone remember the whole Documents to Go drama? It looks kinda similar to me. I’m very curious to see if someone has bought or is about to buy Epocrates.
BS03

I’ve kept my old TX running just because Epoc for WebOS wasn’t up and running fully. The “lack of interest” comes from the lack of function.
When I got the email I was mad. Now I am just praying that they don’t drop PalmOS as well.
AnthonyC

I know that ePocrates is a business, has to make money, therefore needs to focus on the largest markets. However, Palm, specifically Palm OS, is the reason why ePocrates is any sort of company at all today. Palm OS was the first stable mobile OS that allowed easy PDA-desktop syncing that allowed ePocrates to update its drug info. A decade ago if you were a med student or doc the ONLY to have ePocrates was on Palm device. Now they’re dropping Palm, what a change. So sad.

Wishlist

AndrewC, I completely agree. 2 things occur to me: firstly, your point of who brung ‘em to the dance, and secondly, there must be actual techies in the company who could say to the marketing bods that WebOS is so much better than iOS et al, that it’s worth hanging about awhile to see if smartphone newbies realise they’re being shortchanged by the iOS and Android.

WatchingHP

4G capable tablet should do the trick.
Alek

I don’t get what all the fuss is about. Forget Epocrates, and get the LexiDrugs. So it’s not free, but most of us docs, nurses and even poor med students can afford to dish out $100 for a clearly superior set of databases. It sems to me that Epocrates is the looser her, not the WebOS users. I’m much more concerned about having to switch to Verizon…
Tlandrum

This is such a big blow to Palm…. I really hope HP knows that and works to do something about it!! I just don’t know that I can buy another palm without epocrates… I use it every day so many times. I am really scared what I am going to do come this may… If could I would break my contract and buy a new one… it is really that important to me. I guess I will look into LexiDrugs… Other suggestions!?!?
Tlandrum

This is such a big blow to Palm…. I really hope HP knows that and works to do something about it!! I just don’t know that I can buy another palm without epocrates… I use it every day so many times. I am really scared what I am going to do come this may… If could I would break my contract and buy a new one… it is really that important to me. I guess I will look into LexiDrugs… Other suggestions!?!?

Is Epocrates Clueless? Or is HP Failing to Court Big-Name webOS Developers?

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