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-- HANDSPRING NEWS E-DIGEST Issue 1 (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=282)

All old news, but nice to see something coming out of Handspring.

Craig,
Check who sent that. If its the one I got it was from handspringnews.com. This one was not from Handspring.

If it is not from Handspring, then someone has gone to a great deal of trouble to make it look just like the Handspring site.
http://www.handspringnews.com/

This is some look a like out of Iowa. I don't believe this is a sanctioned Handspring web site.

No, that is not an official authorized Handspring site.

They did swipe the look and feel of the Handspring front page.

However, this sure doesn't sound like officical Handspringese as Mr. Pete McKenna (all copyrights honored, of course) opines for quite a bit at
http://www.handspringnews.com/killers.htm

speaking of some point in the future, after the intial excitement...

***Begin quote

...If Handspring puts their attention (resources) on the Visor's sequel at this critical juncture, then they have effectively chosen to entrench at what could and should have been Basecamp One. Call it Camp Weenie Heads...


...So what's to stop Visor from becoming the great runaway tech toy of... well, of all time?

The Killer Flaw.

Plainly stated, Visor is unnecessary. No one really needs a Visor, therefore, they have to be convinced to want one.

Big difference.

And that's exactly how the Handspring dream can fail - by failing to recognize that because Visor does not meet any presently unmet need, because it does not fill any presently unfilled niche, job one is not Technology.

It's Marketing.

...If I were calling the shots, I'd thank Jeff and Donna for a job well done and send them off on an extended PR tour. Then I'd let loose with a string of Star Trekish orders sounding like this:

"Red alert. Battle stations. Reroute all funds to main marketing. Brace for impact. Prepare for casualties. Lay in a course for total market domination, maximum warp. . .

"Engage."

Then I'd start looking for the kind of miracle worker capable of slapping a happy ending on a story like Visor's.

But who could succeed in a market that humbles such giants as Microsoft, Hewlettt-Packard, Casio and Compaq?

With a Killer Add-On? Anyone.

Without it?

No one springs to mind.

...
*** end quote

It's an interesting view, though perhaps a little underinformed. It certainly isn't Handspring party line verbiage, and pays no heed to the already-announced and/or leaked Springboards.

I didn't sign up for the newsletter. Looked like an email harvesting device. Is the content of the newsletter the same as that web page?

Looks like VisorCentral's the place to be.

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john

Mckenna obviously has his own agenda somewhere in lala land.

I'm glad the HandspringNews newsletter is finally out, it looks pretty good. The story about the Visor failing though has some problems I think. For one, I think the author doesn't seem to realize that all products "can" fail. Nothing is certain, especially in the tech world. The Next Big Thing is always around the corner. But, I, and many others I'm sure, believe that the Visor has a long future ahead of it and it's going to be awhile before Handspring is forced to take a fork in the road. The low price point, the PalmOS compatibilty, and let's face it, the cool colors, open new markets that wouldn't have normally been available to the Palm. These are the Killer Add-ons the article refers to, and they aren't even add-ons.

The Killer Flaw, as the author puts it, is not really a flaw. Nobody "needs" a computer to live (maybe some of us do ) but we all feel we have to have one. Convincing someone to "want" something is not the right path, you have to convince them that they need it to survive in the world. College students, home professionals, forgetful people, Daytimer users, and many others can easily be convinced that they need a Visor, just as most of those people have been convinced that they need a computer.

Just as the first personal computers from Apple were supplanted by IBMs and those were supplanted by clones from Compaq and others, the Palm can very easily be supplanted by the Visor. Being first does not always guarantee longterm #1 status.

Where the heck did this Handspring News E-Digest come from. I thought I subscribed to a digest from Handspring. Instead I get this no mind article on the future of handspring based on pure speculation.

I think quite a few of you are getting the news letters mixed up. Handspring, Inc. had/has a signup sheet on their site for a news letter. The first version of this letter hasn't been seen out yet. HandspringNews.com (not affiliated with Handpspring, Inc.) also has a news letter which most of you have received. The real Handspring News Letter will come from an address inside handspring.com and not handspringnews.com.

What I am wondering is where did they get our email addresses. It showed up in my email as it did in many of yours as it seems. So the common denominator is VisorCentral. My email address is not listed. Did VisorCentral sell our addresses or does the Newsletter possibly come from them. Just asking - I may be out to lunch.

Got the e-mail today, and noticed that VisorCentral is one of their sponsors!!??

DC

VisorCentral did not sell or give your e-mail address to Handspring News.com

Yes, we were asked if we wanted to be sponsors of the first issue, so we agreed.

And no, we are not affiliated with HandspringNews in any way.

For those of you complaining about getting this HandspringNewsletter. I'm a member of VisorCentral and they did not send me the newsletter so I'd say look somewhere else to blame emails going out.

It is possible though that HandspringNewsletter stole it off of your profile? at another Visor site? I've seen many of us all around the net.

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Richard




[This message has been edited by RSGMOOSE (edited 10-13-1999).]

I concure. I have also NOT recieved the above mentioned "News" and have been a member at VisorCentral since day 2.

I'm also a member of the PDABuzz site, so I would think they aren't giving out addresses either.

CZ

Someone had posted a link to this news e-digest on VisorCentral. Maybe the people who are complaining about having received it, signed up for it and have forgotten that they did so.

Like a number of other VisorCentral users, I did not receive it either.

I'm a member here and PDABuzz (obviously) and I did not get the newsletter. And I KNOW PDABuzz didn't give out any emails to anyone cuz ... well I run it!

In any event, it's possible that people signed up and forgot or that some email addresses are being harvested from popular discussion forums. Anything's possible.

It's best to go into your profile and make your mail address invisible, not just for this reason but for general spam reasons as well!

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Wes Salmon
PDA Buzz Guy
www.pdabuzz.com