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-- Total Cost of Ownership: Visor vs Palm Devices (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=291)

I have not really researched this exhaustively, but it looks like the total cost of ownership may be lower with a Visor than a Palm device.

To match the capabilities of the springboard (and yes I know some of them are still on the drawing board) will likely cost more on the Palms. So even though the initial cost of a Palm is much cheaper (with the VA deal), how about when you add a backup moudule, modem, flashrom etc.

Comments?

That's a very good question. I believe you are right regarding cost of a springboard vs. cost of same thing for a Palm. The pager board available for PalmPilots is over $100, while the module from Innogear will be $50. The modems are similarly priced, and I don't know about GPS in terms of cost.

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James Hromadka
VisorCentral.com
Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/jehromadka

I'm of the opinion that the Visor's TCO would be as much if not MORE than the Palms for the simple fact that their are more moving parts for the client to break/require support for.

Take the example of floppy-less workstations ... they have less support costs since you no longer have jammed floppy calls.

With the Visor, the springboard is a major aspect of the unit so you can expect it to get more usage than a standard floppy disk drive.

Then add to that, lost, stolen, dropped, and generally broken springboard modules and the TCO is not looking too good from a corporate standpoint.

One other thing to think about is USB ... it's not everywhere so if you deploy a Visor, you have to a) have 100% USB deployment, or b) buy serial cradles for those without it. Such a task is not easy with 5,000 or so users since you must first IDENTIFY who needs serial and who can use USB. All of this legwork costs money, money which is directly computed into the TCO of each unit. Then you have to buy the serial cradles which is even more cost.

It's odd to think of TCO in regards to the Visor anyway since it seems generally marketed towards a consumer market, not a corporate market where TCO is important.

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Wes Salmon
PDA Buzz Guy
www.pdabuzz.com

TCO on these devices is going to be a moving target for some time to come. The Palm IIIx used to sell for $349, it's present "official" price is $300, but can be had for about $220.

The Visor is only available, well sort of, from Handspring at the "official" price of $250. So on the one hand it is $50 cheaper that the official Palm price. Of course in the market place it is $40 more expensive. I wonder what the Visor will sell for when it can be purchased at locations other than Handspring?

And finally, the Visor does have the Springboard which is an extra "feature" the Palm does not.