VisorCentral.com - Handspring still an A

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-- Handspring still an A (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=24777)

Posted by VisorCentral on 07-13-2002 05:09 AM:

Handspring still an A

In the latest PC Magazine Service and Reliability survey, Handspring was rated an A - better than any other PDA manufacturer.

http://www.visorcentral.com/content/Stories/1474-1.htm

Posted by dampeoples on 07-13-2002 06:07 AM:

Wonder if they surveyed any Edge owners?

Posted by sowens on 07-13-2002 01:44 PM:

Then it's too bad HS is getting out of the PDA market to concentrate on communicators.

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Posted by Toby on 07-13-2002 02:56 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by dampeoples
Wonder if they surveyed any Edge owners?

All 10 of us?

Posted by argent on 07-13-2002 08:22 PM:

I'm not surprised. While I'm not happy about the 3 failed digitizers, the fact that I was able to get prompt replacements even 3 months out of warranty (the digitizer on each replacement kept failing while the warranty on the replacement was still good!) is a good sign.

People are willing to give a company leeway in the early days if they ge the problems under control and keep them under control. Handspring has done this. I may have issues with them, but they certainly have nothing to do with their support or quality.

(so much for the early comments that the visor looked like a toy and was obviously shoddy manufacture compared to the "clearly professional" Palm... )

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Posted by coppertop on 07-14-2002 03:35 PM:

The grades must have been on one heck of a bell curve

I can understand why Visorcentral has a high opinion of Handspring products but, why would anyone else? How can they achieve an "A" for thier products when they are discontinuing most of thier product line.

If Handspring had developed a color Edge or a slimmer prism or a higher resolution edge or some other improvement of the Visor line, I would probably agree with this grade.

But to abandon the Visor line for a limited, untested, TREO line is ridiculous. Sony deserves the highest mark because they keep cranking out improvements to thier lines of palm devices. If it were not for Sony the Palm OS would have a hard time surviving. Pocket PC devices are being updated/upgrade with more regularity than Handspring.

Not only have they shot themselves in the foot, by eliminating the Springboard slot, Handspring has also sealed the fate of any company developing modules. Take away the curve and Handspring should have gotten a C- for a grade.

Posted by dampeoples on 07-14-2002 03:55 PM:

Re: The grades must have been on one heck of a bell curve

quote:
Originally posted by coppertop
I can understand why Visorcentral has a high opinion of Handspring products but, why would anyone else? How can they achieve an "A" for thier products when they are discontinuing most of thier product line.

If Handspring had developed a color Edge or a slimmer prism or a higher resolution edge or some other improvement of the Visor line, I would probably agree with this grade.

But to abandon the Visor line for a limited, untested, TREO line is ridiculous. Sony deserves the highest mark because they keep cranking out improvements to thier lines of palm devices. If it were not for Sony the Palm OS would have a hard time surviving. Pocket PC devices are being updated/upgrade with more regularity than Handspring.

Not only have they shot themselves in the foot, by eliminating the Springboard slot, Handspring has also sealed the fate of any company developing modules. Take away the curve and Handspring should have gotten a C- for a grade.

If you read the survey, you would have seen that this was a survey on service and reliability.

Posted by Toby on 07-14-2002 03:56 PM:

Re: The grades must have been on one heck of a bell curve

quote:
Originally posted by coppertop
I can understand why Visorcentral has a high opinion of Handspring products but, why would anyone else?

I think you have it exactly backwards. I'd say that I'd expect the people on VisorCentral to be _more_ critical of Handspring than general consumers.

quote:
How can they achieve an "A" for thier products when they are discontinuing most of thier product line.

The same way Sony does. Sony discontinues products at an even faster rate in some cases (compare the T415 to the Edge).

quote:
If Handspring had developed a color Edge or a slimmer prism or a higher resolution edge or some other improvement of the Visor line, I would probably agree with this grade.

Why? It's not an innovation survey. It's a survey of how well their products hold up and how they fix them if something goes wrong.

quote:
[...] Sony deserves the highest mark because they keep cranking out improvements to thier lines of palm devices.

This position seems strange given the above position on Handspring.

quote:
If it were not for Sony the Palm OS would have a hard time surviving. Pocket PC devices are being updated/upgrade with more regularity than Handspring.

That's because they _need_ drastic improvement.

quote:
Not only have they shot themselves in the foot, by eliminating the Springboard slot, Handspring has also sealed the fate of any company developing modules. Take away the curve and Handspring should have gotten a C- for a grade.

Did you even see what the rating was about?

Posted by argent on 07-14-2002 06:28 PM:

Re: The grades must have been on one heck of a bell curve

quote:
Originally posted by coppertop
I can understand why Visorcentral has a high opinion of Handspring products but, why would anyone else? How can they achieve an "A" for thier products when they are discontinuing most of thier product line.

They got an "A" for their *service* group. Not for their "marketing" or "management" or whatever department is responsible for stupid decisions like dumping the Visor.

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Posted by coppertop on 07-14-2002 08:05 PM:

The A maybe for service but for how long

And you really think there service rating will stay up there for all the products they have discontinued?

Posted by dampeoples on 07-14-2002 08:12 PM:

Re: The A maybe for service but for how long

quote:
Originally posted by coppertop
And you really think there service rating will stay up there for all the products they have discontinued?

It's an overall service rating, even your precious Sony discontinues products, even faster than Handspring. Perhaps they should both get a D for discontinue

Posted by coppertop on 07-14-2002 08:24 PM:

Your a pretty good cheerleader for HS

are you on their payroll?

Sony does discontinue products but replaces them ,for the most part, with similar models that can use existing accessories. You can't say that about HS.

They completely wiped out their VISOR line for the limited TREO. If I choose to upgrade my Prism, I will be stuck with six springboard modules that will do me no good. I will have to replace everyone of them, if there's something compatible, with any other device I choose.

Admit it, HS has turned it's back on the consumer.

Posted by dampeoples on 07-14-2002 08:37 PM:

Re: Your a pretty good cheerleader for HS

quote:
Originally posted by coppertop
are you on their payroll?

Sony does discontinue products but replaces them ,for the most part, with similar models that can use existing accessories. You can't say that about HS.

They completely wiped out their VISOR line for the limited TREO. If I choose to upgrade my Prism, I will be stuck with six springboard modules that will do me no good. I will have to replace everyone of them, if there's something compatible, with any other device I choose.

Admit it, HS has turned it's back on the consumer.

No, i'm not on the payroll. Sony has what two different models that use the same accessories? All of the Visor models used the same accessories, except the Edge and a few things on the Prism because it was so big.
Technology moves forward, older products get left behind, I don't see what the big deal is with them discontinuing their product line.
i don't feel that HS has turned their back on the consumer, they turned the company in a direction that, win or lose, they feel is the best road to take.

Posted by Toby on 07-15-2002 12:15 AM:

Re: Your a pretty good cheerleader for HS

quote:
Originally posted by coppertop
[...] Admit it, HS has turned it's back on the consumer.

Admit it, you're missing the point. Handspring has turned their back on the Springboard enthusiasts. The catch is that those enthusiasts are a) irrelevant to Joe Consumer, and b) irrelevant to the topic at hand. If you want to be pissed at Handspring for leaving you with six modules which will probably be useless to you in the near future, that's fine. However, it's totally irrelevant to a service and reliability rating from _general_consumers_ who probably _never_ bought a module (unless it was a backup or memory module).

Posted by coppertop on 07-15-2002 12:58 AM:

And the TREO is earth-shattering

My modules won't be worth a flip and there will not be any development for new modules seeing that HS dumped the Visor.

You act like the TREO is the best thing since sliced bread. Well it ain't and HS will be either bought out or belly up within 6 months.

Posted by dampeoples on 07-15-2002 01:04 AM:

Re: And the TREO is earth-shattering

quote:
Originally posted by coppertop
My modules won't be worth a flip and there will not be any development for new modules seeing that HS dumped the Visor.

You act like the TREO is the best thing since sliced bread. Well it ain't and HS will be either bought out or belly up within 6 months.

Your modules will be fine, I laugh at this misconception. As long as they are not broken, they will perform ten years from now just as well as they did when you brought it home. I think a new medical module came out too, but you said there will not be any new development.
Who said anything about the treo?
What's wrong with being bought out?
Why will they be belly up? People have been saying they will be belly up in six months for longer than that now, mmmm.

Posted by coppertop on 07-15-2002 01:10 AM:

I agree that people have been predicting

the fall of Handspring for some time now. But, what makes today different from yesterday was that a complete line of PDA's, HS anchor line, has been discontinued.

Not only was it HS anchor line but it was what made HS unique and spawned independant developers of springboard technology.

What's wrong with being bought out? Being bought out. Rumors are about saying Palm Inc. is trying to buy HS. Well more power to them. Palm lost a lot of the market when they went away from the III design form the "m" design. Nothing like two sinking ships colliding in the waters.

Posted by argent on 07-15-2002 01:25 AM:

Re: Your a pretty good cheerleader for HS

quote:
Originally posted by coppertop
Sony does discontinue products but replaces them ,for the most part, with similar models that can use existing accessories.

Either this must be some alternate Sony in some alternate universe, or "for the most part" means "if you replace your Sony XX123FOO with the XX135BAR that's almost identical to the XX123FOO, instead of the XYZ567BAR that you really want because it's actually an upgrade".

I don't know why I'd want to replace my PEG300 with a PEG320 or a PEG360, but when I replaced my Visor Deluxe with my Visor Prism (sort of like going from a PEG300 to a T series) all my accessories still worked. If Handspring was like Sony the only upgrade path from the Deluxe would be a Neo.

There is no reason why *any* of Sony's models should be incompatible at any level or any point with any other model. Ever. Their original hotsync port on the 300 already did USB and serial, and as Handspring showed with the Prism going to a rechargable battery is no reason to change the interface.

If you're going to get on Handspring's case over the Visor-Treo change, there is no way, no way at all, that you can even vaguely pretend to be consistent and come up with a line like that. Sony is the *poster boy* for incompatibility, and Handspring abandoning the Visor line is only a surprise because they have done such a good job up to now of maintaining compatibility, even in the much-maligned (and justly maligned, I will grant you) Edge.

quote:
Admit it, HS has turned it's back on the consumer.

OK. Now why don't you tell us what Sony's been doing for the consumer lately?

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Posted by dampeoples on 07-15-2002 01:35 AM:

Re: I agree that people have been predicting

quote:
Originally posted by coppertop
the fall of Handspring for some time now. But, what makes today different from yesterday was that a complete line of PDA's, HS anchor line, has been discontinued.

Not only was it HS anchor line but it was what made HS unique and spawned independant developers of springboard technology.

What's wrong with being bought out? Being bought out. Rumors are about saying Palm Inc. is trying to buy HS. Well more power to them. Palm lost a lot of the market when they went away from the III design form the "m" design. Nothing like two sinking ships colliding in the waters.

The have discontinued their same anchor line that people have been griping about because of lack of flash, no hires hack, no tiny one, etc. and on top of that - next generation devices are around the corner, why would they continue pouring money into an old device running an old OS?
I see nothing wrong with HS being bought out, it was the way it all started with Jeff & Co. there, they've got a strong product line with brand recognition, it would help. Who took the market from Palm? Had to be HS, so merging the two would make perfect sense to me. I also don't see these sinking ships you speak of.

Posted by Madkins007 on 07-15-2002 01:58 AM:

Coppertop- the issue is how well the three companies take care of their customers globally.

HS is a great company to deal with if you have a problem- most of the time. Sony CAN be great, but a lot of transactions with them are unsatisfactory- do it their way or forget it. I had a problem with the MS camera that they were never able to resolve so they basically told me to not bother calling back- HS ALWAYS helped me until a resolution.

HS MAY be doing something foolish with their shift in focus- but I think it would be far more foolish for them to continue to compete head-on against Palm and Sony.

Hey, I liked my modules too- but statistically, many of us bought the HS because of the module abilities- and almost none of us took advantage of this option. Of those who did, most (almost all) did a memory expansion thing- like Palm and Sony are doing.

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