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-- POLL: Upgrade if Handspring offered an "upgrade" price? (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=8702)

I think it would be nice if handspring offered an "upgrade" price. What I mean by that is you would ship your deluxe to handspring and they would give you a discount toward a new platinum or prism. I would be willing to pay up to $100 for a new platinum. Anyone else think this would be nice? I mean after all the visors don't have flash epprom. And you really have no choice but to buy a new visor if you want to keep up with the technology.

For <= $100 per unit, I'd probably upgrade both mine and my wife's.

Those kinds of upgrades were pretty common in the early days of computing (trade in your old computer on a new Commodore 64!), but you rarely see them now.

Even if Handspring offered such an upgrade, they'd be hard-pressed to offer you more than $100 for a used Visor Deluxe, since there's not much they could do with them. (And even at $100, they'd probably lose $$$ on every upgrade, so everyone loses.)

And you can get far more than $100 selling your Visor Deluxe on eBay...

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Denny Atkin / [email protected]
Editor-in-Chief, Handheld Computing Magazine / www.hhcmag.com

Considering that Handspring will give you a replacement visor for $85, thy probably CAN make money on $100 upgrades. That said, it probably isn't prudent to do so, as most people will upgrade by getting a new visor every year or two anyways.

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Upgrades

I have sent a email to HS asking that very question! Will let you know how they answer. I think that if everyone emailed them they may be more inclined to do it if they currently are not.


T

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expert = ex - a washed-uped has been, Spurt - a small drop that has a lot of pressure behind it.

Trade ins.

I'd definitely pay for an upgrade.

But more importantly, in response to the question about what Handspring could do with the "trade ins"... they could INCREASE Palm OS and specifically Handspring marketshare by selling them for a minimal processing fee or giving them away to colleges or high schools for the students. Let's face it, when I was in school, the credit card folks would do ANYTHING to get me to fill out their application and use their card. They understood that college grads were going to have some increased chance of having spendable income to fulfill our need for THINGS.

I'm not saying that our materialism was a good thing but it sure pushed our economy to the levels of growth we're seeing.

Apple has kept in the market with their strong presence in the academic world. (That and their OS isn't written like crap and doesn't crash every other minute.) How many of us remember the Mac Plus, Mac SE or IIci's that were in math class or in science class in high school or middle school? There are whole colleges that have adopted the Mac OS platform and their grads tend to "buy what they know".

For a group of people that complain about not being able to handle their busy schedules or their contacts or little bits of information on little bits of paper... the Handspring Visor is an effective, simple and inexpensive way to both help our organization skills while giving us a neat-o gadget to wow our non-techie friends.

I hope that Handspring reads this forum regularly... this kind of public relations stance and forward thinking is what set Handspring apart in the first place. I'd hate to see HAND sprint out ahead of Palm and the other PDAs only to then adopt their attitude of forgetting about market share and their customer base. Heck, I'd give my Visor to a school as part of a big compaign, if I could be sure that it'd be used and not put a back room, for some kind of credit from Handspring to be put towards the Handspring Platinum *2* (the one that I've been hoping with the aluminum case and the slim form factor)!

Just my two cents.

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Pocket PCs, Palm... next victim, MS Windows!

of corse
right now im planing on selling my visor lux so i can get a prism

If they came up with this kind of upgrade program, I'd definitely be in!

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100 bucks for a platnum, I there.
BEN

upgrade

yes i'd pay for the upgrade.
but it could be noted that at the going Ebay rate for Deluxes ($200-225) one COULD auction off one's Deluxe and buy the Patinum for a differential that's probably LESS than the $100 that's been suggested here.

i don't know if it's in Hadspring's interest to just let that happen or to promote some user happiness by offering an upgrade path.
i would HOPE the latter.

Someone mentioned giving them away to schools, or at least giving the schools a deep discount on the Visor Deluxed people would turn in.

I think this a great idea for Handspring. Remember what Apple did. I remember back in the mid 80's all the schools had Apples, and this of course lead to parents buying them for the home.

Not sure how if parents would buy a Visor after seeing their kids, but this would be a great idea for college students, get them hooked on PDA's in school and you've got a loyal customer after they graduate.

If Handspring doesn't do this Palm should at least, they have the most to benefit by giving students discounts on PDA's. Especially if that means getting them hooked on Palm OS.

Just my 2 cents

-VisorHolic

I'd definitely be in - I posted the same question on another thread earlier. If HS would be willing to allow trade ins for the properly shielded version, why not the new models assuming the Prism and Platinum are properly shielded fro wireless use.

For the right price I would upgrade both mine and my wife's also!

Depending on how much they would give me for my VDX I might consider upgrading to the Platinum, however, if I really wanted one I would just post my DX on ebay and make all my money back. I'm keeping my Visor, for now.

Just a curious semi-related question.

Who here would buy a Visor Deluxe, Prism, Platinum, etc for a reduced price if it were 'factory refurbished' or 'open box'? In other words, used.

You can get 'open box' deals on computers and other equipment direct from companies nowadays, wouldn't it be nice if HS did something similar? I mean, if they started offering the upgrade price, they could then take the old Visors and resell them (for a higher price than they were traded at) as an open-box dealie.

I know I've bought a few things like this and gotten great equipment at greatly reduced cost. Do you think PDA people would go for something similar?

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-Richard Powell

"Nice guys may finish last, but you know, the company's much better back here."

raptor,

Dell does this, and is getting rave reviews for the bargains to be had. I was thinking of getting one of these refurb systems myself. You can get some great buys.

Handspring must have some infrastruture to accomodate a "show your hand and upgrade" program, since they aready do the refurbish/return thing. If they beefed this up, they could make donations to schools and/or resell at a reduced rate to consumers.

I do agree that they would most likely not give you much for the trade-in. They certainly would take a large tax credit by the school donations though. Apple has done that for years. It's a good investment to have the younger users "growing up" on your product. Plus, you get the tax benefits.

quote:

---

Originally posted by raptor
Just a curious semi-related question.

Who here would buy a Visor Deluxe, Prism, Platinum, etc for a reduced price if it were 'factory refurbished' or 'open box'? In other words, used.

You can get 'open box' deals on computers and other equipment direct from companies nowadays, wouldn't it be nice if HS did something similar? I mean, if they started offering the upgrade price, they could then take the old Visors and resell them (for a higher price than they were traded at) as an open-box dealie.

I know I've bought a few things like this and gotten great equipment at greatly reduced cost. Do you think PDA people would go for something similar?

---

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Do files get embarrassed when they get unzipped?

Palm has never offered upgrade pricing except to their beta testers. With the release of the earnings report still showing a loss, I'd bet that the finance committee at Handspring would play serious bean counter and nix any upgrade offers.

Handspring would have to allow a small amount towards an upgrade because of the cost involved in handling and refurbishing and it's a limited market.

How many people that don't have a PDA would buy one for more than $100 bucks? since the Visor is only $149. How many people would expect to get $85 bucks for a used piece of equipment that a new unit is $149.

It's a nice idea but there is very little precedent/value to someone's old PDA being attractive to the market and hence Handspring recovering that loss.

I know I wouldn't buy a used piece of equipment of this type unless the price was well below $50 because of the fear of damage and failure. For $100 worth of my time it's not worth taking the chance on getting a bad piece of hardware that I'd have to ship back or troubleshoot.

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Yep, no second thoughts either.

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Upgrade / Tradein

Just Got and email back from HS and they stated that had heard from many of us but did NOT plan on a trade in program at this time. I think we need to keep the pressure on and hope for the best.


T

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expert = ex - a washed-uped has been, Spurt - a small drop that has a lot of pressure behind it.

Pressure on Handspring.

Maybe we should get something together. Like a petition or something and send it to handspring. The more supporters, the better chance we would have to get handspring to listen. I will probably not get a new prism or platnium because of the price and that I already have my Visor Deluxe. Reply if anyone would be interested in a petition for a trade in price sort of thing with ideas.


-Brian

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