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-- Buy Visor now, or wait for price drop/new visor? (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=1025)

After seeing all this stuff about Palm price drops and the new COLOR palm coming out, do you think that it would be good for those of us who don't have a Visor yet to wait for a price drop or a new visor?
If Handspring doesn't get going and introduce a new Visor, drop the prices, or make sure that some killer springboards come out, they could be in trouble. Just my 2 cents.

Spaceman Spiff

Spaceman - I have the same question. I'm debating between the Visor Deluxe and the Palm IIIxe. Granted, the Palm doesn't come with the Springboard (where are all the modules???), but it does come with better customer service!!!

Check out what CNET has to say about the new Palms - http://cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-154...?st.ne.fd.gif.d

Well Handspring, your days are numbered. I�ll give you until February 20th to show some signs of life.

Space man

First of all what up? and i have reletively the same question. As a matter of fact it is the same. Should i wait? The new palm IIIc looks real tempting the drawback.....no springboard. Should i wait or get my visor?

Also see my topic TO WAIT OR NOT TO WAIT?

Back in the 80s when I worked in CA I had an Amiga. An engineer I worked with would come to me at least once a week to talk about Amigas, Macs and PCs. He didn't own a computer but he was "close" to buying one. Each time we talked he would comment about something new he'd heard was coming out or that the prices were going to drop. He'd wait for the price drop or the release of the new hardware or .... Get the idea?

In the 5 or so years I knew him he never bought a computer because there was always something new on the horizon.

Find what fits your current needs and buy it. Enjoy it for a couple years and then upgrade to what ever is available.

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In the 5 or so years I knew him he never bought a computer because there was always something new on the horizon.

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People should get over the "when Handspring gets it together" thing.
They have it together.

Shipping times are meassured in days, the problems with the shipping of defective units sems to have been corected, the improved stock stylus has reduced the screen scratch problem, wait times for tech help are down, even customer service has improved.

Springboards are coming, remember: they are third party for the most part, not from Handspring, and more are being anounced every day.

Will the price drop? Most likely it will when the unit hits retail outlets but it isn't going to drop by $100 bucks.

Those who rave about the price drop of the Palm units should ask why Palm overcharged for so long and bless Handspring for forcing down the prices.

Color Palm units are anticipated to cost $600 or more. If you want to spend that much then you should wait and buy one.

If you want a very good unit with lots of memory, good battery life, great ease of use and the potential of the Springboards, then get a Visor deluxe now and stop sitting on the fence.

Just my two cents


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Life is to short for boring food

You are right SpiceUmUp, I didn't exactly mean "when handspring gets it together." I was actually talking about springboards (or rather the lack of them.) Sure...people are announcing them, but so far there are no really compelling springboards. I want to see a good springboard actually out, not just one announced. The part about color...there is no way that i can get a color palm, but it's driving the other prices down. If i had to make my choice right now i would go for the Visor Deluxe (blue) because of springboard capability. But since i CAN wait, i think that it might be good to wait at least for a price drop. (I'm a student and dont have deep pockets full of money to spend on new technology but i wish i did =) )Anyway, I just want to clarify that.

Very well said SpiceUmUp. I read your post and i agree with you 100%. As for a price drop to the Visor, I read somewhere that the IIIx was going to drop to $229. That's 20 bucks less than the VDx and half the memory!! For 20 dollars i wouldn't even bother thinking about it. Don't take your 'significant other' out to McDonald's twice this week and you've made the 20 dollars for the Visor. And for those that don't eat dinner at McDonald's, you shouldn't be worrying about price.

I still think the Visor is superior to the IIIxe strictly because of the Springboard. EVEN if the only springboard you get is ..hmm..the sixpack??? It's better than lugging around the huge Palm modem and strapping it to the bottom of your boring black xe.(sorry graphite users...no offence to :> )

I'm confused as to why this is such an issue.

(BTW: PDABuzz quotes: Palm IIIe = $149, Palm IIIx = $229, Palm V = $329, Palm Vx = $399, and Palm VII = $449, the Visor is STILL the best answer)

[This message has been edited by Hoser_in_USA (edited 02-05-2000).]

You have a point hoser...after seeing all these posts, i think that now the issue for me is no longer the decision of a palm or not (never liked them anyway) but whether i should wait until there is price drop or not. Every penny counts for me...after i buy the visor deluxe (if i buy it now) i will have only $2.50 left. =( Well thanks for getting me out of that little drop of disillusionment about handspring. Now the only question is how long to wait for a price drop.
Spaceman Spiff

Betcha dollars to donuts that we don't have to wait too long (I would guess in 2-4 weeks) till Handspring announces a comparable (10-20%?) drop in prices for the Visor and Deluxe, since the Palm price drops are effective immediately and the Palm IIIc will be coming out exactly 2 weeks from now, just ahead of Palm's IPO.

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Originally posted by Hoser_in_USA:
Very well said SpiceUmUp. I read your post and i agree with you 100%. As for a price drop to the Visor, I read somewhere that the IIIx was going to drop to $229. That's 20 bucks less than the VDx and half the memory!! For 20 dollars i wouldn't even bother thinking about it.

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Why would handspring lower it's prices unless it sees a signifigant drop in ordering? Just by what I hear here plenty of people are arguing for the visor, not to mention MOST (not to discriminate, I am a broke student too of the people that buy PDAs (from what I read just here and other places) don't really worry about a 20-40 dollar price difference but want the better product.
-Ann

Am I the only one who doesn't think that Handspring is going to drop prices in the near future? It's really just basic Econ. 1: The demand for Handspring's Visor is currently exceeding their supply, which puts the market equilibrium at higher than what they're selling now, not lower. Palm's price drop is, after all, a reaction to the pricing of the Visor. Since the price drop only puts similar products on the same level, not Handspring's at a much higher one, I suspect that this will only serve to help stabilize the demand for Visors to the point where Handspring can become more competitive on the supply end. That being said, I don't think you'll see a price drop by Handspring until after they see how the handheld market reacts to Palm's price drops and if it even has a significant slowing impact on their sales, such that they're out-supplying their demand. Granted, I received my Visor in only four days (Express Shipping), but had I ordered a Palm device, it would have come the next day. This tells me that they still don't have their supply chain to the point where they have warehouses full of extra Visors just lying around (I could be wrong, I'm just speculating), and until they get to that point, there's no need to drop the price.

If Handspring does the economically correct thing, they won't jump the gun too early, and they'll maintain prices until their supply stabilizes. If you've made the decision to buy a Visor, I'd say do so now, you won't be sorry.


[Note - I haven't done any formal research on this, nor do I have any figures. Estimates on Handspring's market status are only educated guesses.]

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Leshrac
[email protected]
http://www.magictraders.com

I too wonder if the Palm IIIxe will eat into VDx sales enough to force Handspring into lowering the price. I agree that at this point in time, it makes no sense for Handspring to pre-emptively lower the price.

If more Handspring modules ship near the release date of the IIIxe (assuming they work as advertised), it will be easier for Handspring to resist lowering the price of the VDx.

As long as one is not in the dire financial straights of the Spaceman, waiting does not seem worthwhile.

Maybe not with the Visor Deluxe, but I think the standard Visor could use a bit of a cut. I see no reason to buy a Visor for 180 when I could get a IIIx online for 20 bucks more.

Competitively, the VDlx is still at a pretty good pricepoint.. about 20 bucks more than the IIIx for an extra 4 megs of RAM. $150 is pretty good for the IIIe if you want to just get started and for that same reason, the Visor looks like a horrible value, springboard slot or not.

My opinion.. Visor Deluxe might drop in price, but definitely not now. If we see anything we'll see the standard Visor drop to around $150 to make it comparable to the IIIe.