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Palm OS 5 will make or break the Visor line

If Handspring is currently working to churn out a Palm OS 5 color Visor, and a more affordable greyscale one then the Visor line will continue to live, if no new products come out then the Visor line will quietly disappear...
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My new years prediction

Re: Palm OS 5 will make or break the Visor line

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Originally posted by Techie2000
If Handspring is currently working to churn out a Palm OS 5 color Visor, and a more affordable greyscale one then the Visor line will continue to live, if no new products come out then the Visor line will quietly disappear...
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My new years prediction

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__________________
Did you just go near a burning hot river of lava or are you just happy to see me?

Re: Palm OS 5 will make or break the Visor line

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Originally posted by Techie2000
If Handspring is currently working to churn out a Palm OS 5 color Visor, and a more affordable greyscale one then the Visor line will continue to live, if no new products come out then the Visor line will quietly disappear...
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My new years prediction

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__________________
Hey baby before we start do you mind if we use my M505?
No not for that!!!!!!!!!!
Use it to reffer to PalmaSutra, silly???????

Re: Re: Palm OS 5 will make or break the Visor line

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Originally posted by culo77


My prediction will be the Come out with the same Prism, butt with 16mb. And maybe a new case. Plus it will run Palm OS 3.546325H yet again with no Flash memory.

Then when you get your new Prism, you will open the box and you will be bombarded with adds for the TREO

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__________________
Did you just go near a burning hot river of lava or are you just happy to see me?

Ahhhh Arm7 ....It actually worries me. They say it will be compatible with almost everything earlier??????

I Pray that TREO is a BIG BIG hit cause it will give HS enough capital to Make the color TREO, and two new devices by summer.
Maybe one thats Runnin the OS 5 and a lower priced OS 4. That will be three new ones buy HS. Go FLiP GO

__________________
Hey baby before we start do you mind if we use my M505?
No not for that!!!!!!!!!!
Use it to reffer to PalmaSutra, silly???????

My Predictions

Here are my predictions:

1. Handspring sotck will double from its current price of ~$6.00 by mid-summer and they will announce that they are profitable.

2. The Treo will be the most successful Palm OS/Phone hybrid ever in terms of sales.

3. Sony/Ericcson Mobile group will release a Palm OS/Phone hybrid to rival the Treo.

4. Palm Inc will be behind the curve again.

5. Handera will release a color unit that will finally put it on consumers radar screen.

6. Handspring will release a color replacement for the Edge and maybe the Prism (with a Visor pro form factor). The next generation of the Treo will still not have a Springboard slot, BUT will have a SD/MMC slot for memory expansion and backup.

7. Handspring will release a PDA with two slots -- a Springboard Slot and a SD/MMC or similar slot.

8. The next generation of handspring color devices will have a screen with a higher resolution (most like like soft graffiti) and run on Palm OS 4.1H2 or something like that. Dont expect an OS 5 PDA next year. OS 5 is a drastic change from OS 3 and 4 so it will take some time.

9. Wer will finally get to see the Visor Twist and/or the Visor Snap.

10. MarkEagle will hit the 4,000 post mark by December 31st.

11. Foo Fighter will be preaching how great Handspring is and how much he was wrong .

12. Miradu2000 will finally learn how to spell

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12. Miradu2000 will finally learn how to spell

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> 1. Handspring sotck will double from its current price of ~$6.00 by mid-
> summer and they will announce that they are profitable.

Aww, crap, is it already up to $6? I bought a hundred shares when it was at $2 (I also bought when it was at $10, but I was actually trading there and had intended to sell it at $12 -- I had been profitably going back and forth like that for a while until it got crushed), and I was intending to try to get either HAND or PALM at under $5 (I've been too lazy to send in a check to my broker).


> 2. The Treo will be the most successful Palm OS/Phone hybrid ever
> in terms of sales.

It does look really awesome. I think I agree with you there.



> 3. Sony/Ericcson Mobile group will release a Palm OS/Phone hybrid to
> rival the Treo.

I think you'll be surprised at how slothy they'll be at doing that.



> 4. Palm Inc will be behind the curve again.

Maybe in the hybrid phone segment (their offering is a bit weak), but Palm will be ahead of all other PalmOS PDA makers since they'll have first crack at PalmOS 5.


> 5. Handera will release a color unit that will finally put it on consumers
> radar screen.

Hoping and praying. Now that HandEra's form factor supports both CompactFlash *and* PCMCIA expansion peripherals (and possibly SD devices, though I'm not quite certain of that, and they don't exist yet anyway!), I think they have an excellent jumping off point. I'm starting to suspect that HandEra might initially go with the 66MHz old architecture Dragonball instead of immediately jumping onto the ARM architecture. After all, HE has now made tons of drivers interfacing CF devices with the old architecture, and it'd be a shame for them to throw away all that work for just one generation of product.



> 6. Handspring will release a color replacement for the Edge and maybe
> the Prism (with a Visor pro form factor). The next generation of the
> Treo will still not have a Springboard slot, BUT will have a
>SD/MMC slot for memory expansion and backup.

I'm surprised that there's no colour Edge already. I'm skeptical, though, that we'll see an MMC slot any time this year in Handspring's Treo family.



> 7. Handspring will release a PDA with two slots -- a Springboard Slot
> and a SD/MMC or similar slot.

No, no, that's what they *should* do, not what they're likely to do.


> 8. The next generation of handspring color devices will have a
> screen with a higher resolution (most like like soft graffiti) and run on
> Palm OS 4.1H2 or something like that. Dont expect an OS 5 PDA next
> year. OS 5 is a drastic change from OS 3 and 4 so it will take some time.

I don't think that they'll adopt the virtual silkscreen this year. I'll consider it a pleasant surprise if they go higher resolution before Palm does.



> 9. Wer will finally get to see the Visor Twist and/or the Visor Snap.

What are those? I forget.

-JC
http://www.jc-news.com/

Re: Palm OS 5 will make or break the Visor line

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Originally posted by Techie2000
If Handspring is currently working to churn out a Palm OS 5 color Visor, and a more affordable greyscale one then the Visor line will continue to live, if no new products come out then the Visor line will quietly disappear...

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Foo Fighter will be preaching how great Handspring is and how much he was wrong .

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__________________
My blog: Pocketfactory

OS 5 won't happen any time soon. Since Hawkins' departure, Palm has been consistently inconsistent in the vision department. The company has announced features ranging from voice activation to i-Mode connectivity, none of which has seen the light of day. Palm is spreading itself too thin in a vain attempt to please every constituency.

Since Palm has only recently gained access to BeIA code, it's going to be at least a year before we see it as the kernel for the Palm UI (like WinCE/PPC). In the meantime, Palm will release some stopgap OS to silence the critics (like Win ME). And it won't make or break Palm or Handspring. If Handspring succeeds with the Treo, it'll have done so with a year-old OS. The value of a handheld for consumers comes from the whole widget -- the software and the hardware -- not just the OS, which is why reviewers are unanimously raving about the Treo.

Palm committed suicide by licensing its OS. Apple made the same mistake and got its @ss kicked by Umax and other OEMs before rescinding the licensing program. Palm's current plans to splinter the OS division from the hardware will just hasten the decline. But as always, Palm without its founders is a comedy of errors.

Now, about the future of miradu2000's spelling . . .

__________________
Eye of Gameboy

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Originally posted by Gameboy70
OS 5 won't happen any time soon.

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Since Hawkins' departure, Palm has been consistently inconsistent in the vision department. The company has announced features ranging from voice activation to i-Mode connectivity, none of which has seen the light of day.

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Palm is spreading itself too thin in a vain attempt to please every constituency.

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In the meantime, Palm will release some stopgap OS to silence the critics (like Win ME).

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And it won't make or break Palm or Handspring.

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If Handspring succeeds with the Treo, it'll have done so with a year-old OS.

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The value of a handheld for consumers comes from the whole widget -- the software and the hardware -- not just the OS, which is why reviewers are unanimously raving about the Treo.

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Palm committed suicide by licensing its OS. Apple made the same mistake and got its @ss kicked by Umax and other OEMs before rescinding the licensing program. Palm's current plans to splinter the OS division from the hardware will just hasten the decline. But as always, Palm without its founders is a comedy of errors.

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__________________
My blog: Pocketfactory

I am wondering if Handspring saw the Sony Juggernaut coming, with its product churn and monster capital, and skittered out of the way. So, the escaped the brunt of Sony's attack by going over and marketing the smartphone, the treo...

...2002 for Handspring is all about the Treo. If it succeeds, they keep on floating, if it doesn't, it'll take a miracle (i.e. a stunningly good OS5 device) to save them....

Rampant Speculation, with a few fun twists:

1: Treo flops, Economy improves: Handspring keeps selling the Treo and the Visor, and modestly improves the visor line by releasing the Visor Spectrum, a pro-sized visor with a good color screen, springboard, and some other whistle (such as SD or soft graffiti)

2: Treo flops, as does Economy: Handspring dies. Hawkins tries to take over one of the Palm babies, they are barely alive by year's end.

3: Treo is a moderate success, Economy is fair to middlin: Status Quo. A year from now we have the same discussion, with HS's future hinging on the XYZ instead of the Treo

4: Treo is a monster success: Handspring does very well, they gobble up market share. Nokia raises its ugly head, and Sony finally gets serious with its partnership with Ericsson by buying it outright. At year's end we have a three way battle for the smart phone, with Motorola and Palm trying to form a partnership so they can get in the ring.

5: Treo becomes as ubiquitous as the desktop computer in homes and business: Hawkins and Gate begin to finally stare each other down, as MS jealously tries to take the market yet again. Apple surprises everybody by releasing the iGranny, a green, sweet phone with monster bandwidth, multimedia capabilities, long battery life, and it also makes julienne fries. Steve Jobs inherits the earth.

__________________
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But the bottom line is that all hopes hang on Treo. If it flops, they are dead plain and simple.

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if no new products come out then the Visor line will quietly disappear...

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Originally posted by coppertop
Handspring will be around for some time to come, offering PDA's such as the Pro, Prism, Edge and Neo

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__________________
My blog: Pocketfactory

foo fighter wrote
It must be released by the end of Q3 or there won't be much left of the "Palm economy" in 2003. The problem for Palm and Handspring, to some extent, is that consumers no longer find these devices compelling. No new features are ever added to the products, so there is little reason to "upgrade". This is why every grayscale PDA introduced over the last 6 months has seen deep consecutive price slashes. People don't want these things anymore. Consumers see grayscale as a low-end feature, and are unwilling to pay up to $299 for such a device.That is the new reality of a changing PDA market. What do you think the current owners of Palm III, Palm V, Visor Dlx, Visor Platinum, Visor Whatever, want to upgrade to next? other monochrome display with a little more RAM? No way...they want COLOR.

The Palm Vx was the top selling PDA of the Christmas season -- not the Cli�, not the iPaq, not the Prism. Only the Cli� is truly competitive, not just because it has color, higher resolution and MP3, but because it's small, good looking, and uses the Palm OS that still dominates the PDA market.

The price slashes have nothing to do with some imagined lack of consumer demand. The freefall dynamics should be familiar to anyone whose seen price wars in other domains, like air fares. Unlike services, whose prices can be reset at any time, discounts on goods have a reverse-ratchet effect. When the VDX was introduced at $250, that became the new price ceiling for general purpose consumer PDAs; a year later, the m100 lowered it by another $100; and so on. The margins are thinning, and that remains true on high-end models: even if the MSRP is higher, the production costs are commensurate. Consumers do benefit from more features, however frivolous, but from a business standpoint the costs incurred in research, development and production make it untenable in the long run for any company less solvent and less diversified than Sony.

Hawkins' characteristically lateral thinking is a vital step back from the cul-de-sac of high-yield, low-margin devices. Handspring is in no position economically to compete with the likes of Sony, Compaq and Microsoft. It's time to do something different: hence the Treo.

True, but I attribute much of Palm's lack of innovation and development to a constant brain drain from the revolving door of CEOs. How many CEOs have we gone through now...5? 6? Every time a bell rings, a former Palm CEO gets his wings.

Fair enough. I've read enough interviews with Palm veterans to know what a sausage factory the company is. I don't have the appetite to go there at the moment.

Palm and Handspring need to begin pushing more color and "gimmicky" devices down the pipe. What will be the next big thing to goose sales? Sony has already figured out that formula...higher resolution color displays...new features such as multimedia, and wireless connectivity. All while offering these new features in a small comfortable form factor.

Sales aren't the problem, revenue is; and every gimmick (1) raises the production cost, (2) lowers profit margins and (3) lowers revenue. If cash in doesn't exceed cash out, the popularity of your product or service is irrelevant. Amazon has been the biggest bookseller on the web for years. Amazon has also been unprofitable for years. Palm finds itself in the same position.

Sony has the cash to recover from a poor-selling model like the first Cli� (Rant: would Sony and other companies please adopt Handpring's tradition of naming rather than numbering models. Which PEG was the first Cli�? I certainly can't remember) and still release an agressive run of massively improved models in only one year, but most companies are capital constrained.

They MUST get this OS out the door, and it MUST be a winner. If it just ends up being an OS 4 look-alike, they are going to be crushed by the media and analysts. Palm can't keep eaking out this lame OS forever. Judging from the poor overall sales of PDAs right now, it may already be running its course.

Notice that the poor sales of PDAs right now is across the board, not particular to Palm OS devices. Psion threw in the towel, and its handhelds had a much more robust OS that Palm's (I consider EPOC/Symbian "the Good WinCE").

I sincerely hope you are wrong. I think releasing a stopgap OS would actually hurt Palm's credibility. Many will see this as evidence that Palm's next generation OS is vaporware.

Lack of credibility would sure be unprecedented in this industry! Once upon a time, Mac was dead. At any rate, Palm's next generation OS is vaporware now.

It may not make or brake Handspring, but it certainly won't be doing them any favors either. Palm on the other hand has it's image to protect. In the eyes of many, they are no longer the leader in the PDA space.

Palm needs to find away to sell products at a profit far more than it needs to worry about what the likes of Jeff Kirvin and PPCBuzz think. The writing is on the wall: "Watch out for falling margins." Adding more RAM, more expensive display technology, audio and other desirable features doesn't solve Palm's problems. I believe Hawkins, on the other hand, has just thought his way out of the box.

Year-old OS? The PalmOS is much older than that. Try 5-6 year-old OS.

Hmmm. That's almost as old as WinCE! Anyway, as you're probably aware, I was referring to the version.

I agree, but there are competitors to the Treo already on the market that haven't really taken off yet. Samsung's i300, Kyocera's smartphone. Only the Blackberry seems to have made some inroads.

I don't consider Samsung's and Kyocera's offerings to be competitors, but cell phones for PDA enthusiasts; the Treo is a PDA for cell phone enthusiasts -- and there are a lot more of them in the world. Integrating the Blackberry's QUERTY keyboard with a phone makes all the difference, not to mention the fact that the Treo is smaller, good looking, and uses the Palm OS that still dominates the PDA market. The former phones are the Newtons of hybid communicators; the Treo is the Pilot. The Blackberry for all its coolness is, well, not a phone.

If [Palm] hadn't licensed out the OS, we would all be using WinCE devices by now..*shudder*. And you can bet prices on Palm devices would never have fallen as low as they are now. So yes, licensing the OS was a bad move for Palm inc, but a wonderful move for the Palm platform.

WinCE device were and are too expensive for casual (most) users. The reason the prices fell had nothing to do with Microsoft: it was the downward spiral of the Palm/Handspring price war. Regardless of who the players were, it was bound to happen anyway, hence Hawkins' shrewd remark, "HP still sells calculators." The asymptotic curve towards Free has plagued every manufacturer and every consumer of every computing platform in history, even Apple. So yes, licensing is a wonderful move for the Palm platform for everyone except Palm.

__________________
Eye of Gameboy

I'd be happy with....

16 MB and COLOR! Better sound would be nice...as well as a more durable casing.

Everything else would be icing!!!!