Quakerly condolences

None of the people in the item below, to RantWoman's knowledge is a Quaker, but RantWoman loves this obituary in total Quaker terms: it's one business competitor writing about the death of another about work and a shared challenge.

From: Eduard Sanchez

To: mss_mailing@codefactory.cat


Today we are all in a state of shock. Torsten Brand, Program Manager for Talks, died last night from complications during a routine operation.



On behalf of Code Factory, I would like to address my deepest sympathy to Torsten's family and friends. There are no words to express our sadness.



We have been competing with Talks for more than seven years, both of us aiming to create life-changing solutions, therefore this competition means something very special to us. Torsten Brand was indirectly a driving force for our company as well as a source of inspiration. It has been a great honor to compete with this pioneer of accessibility during all those years. As software developers we know too well the immense loss that it represents for the whole industry. Developing screen readers applications is a very difficult task that Torsten Brand was doing brilliantly. We thank Torsten for being one of the most important pioneers in accessible mobile technology, and for bringing a good product like Talks to the market.



This competition has been very healthy, and in our case we can honestly say that it made us better, forcing us to be more creative and innovative in order to compete. We met with Torsten in ATIA and CSUN this year and were discussing together the future of mobile phones and accessibility. Our vision of the future has changed too suddenly with this very sad news. We will all miss him a lot and hope that his legacy will be honored and that Talks will keep being a great product. Again all our thoughts are with Torsten's family and friends.



It is with great respect and immense sadness that we say goodbye to the man who first made a mobile phone accessible to the blind and visually impaired.



Eduard Sánchez, Code Factory's CEO,

on behalf of the Code Factory team: Jordi Sánchez, Greg Gladman, Caroline Ragot, Melanie Endres, Ferran Gállego, Wil Osberger, Jose Luis Ametller, Mukesh Sharma, Dinesh Kaushal, Aman Singer, Pilar Hualde, Charlotte Vinkel, and Franco Bellu.