VisorCentral.com - Palm IIIc - $299, keyboard $50 afer rebate. Prism price needs to come down.

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-- Palm IIIc - $299, keyboard $50 afer rebate. Prism price needs to come down. (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=14092)

Posted by Galley_SimRacer on 04-16-2001 03:29 PM:

With the IIIC currently available for only $299, and the keyboard is only $50 after rebate, so you think Handspring should lower the price of the Prism? I realize Palm "screwed the pooch" by announcing their new M500 series too early and have to get rid of excess inventory, but HS should be doing some aggressive marketing in the mean time.

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Posted by yaz320 on 04-16-2001 03:49 PM:

Its not only thats its $299, but if you go to the Palm website and check out their refurbished handhelds ( Link to Refurbished Models ) you can buy it for $209.

Palm claims: "Reconditioned handhelds are as good as new, cosmetically and electronically.They have a 90-day warranty and ship in a white box with all of the usual accompanying materials - manual, CD, cradle and more.However, the extended warranty is not available for refurbished units."

Its EXACTLY like a new one...I wouldn't mind buying that...So a Visor Prism is technically TWICE the price of the IIIc...Come on HS!!!

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Posted by dalamar70 on 04-16-2001 04:25 PM:

Yeah the Prism is twice the price, but it's got the springboard slot, 16-bit color instead of 8-bit, USB instead of serial cradle, and a 33MHz instead of a 16 or 20MHz CPU.

Basically the Prism is almost comparable to the m505, so if you think the Prism should be reduced by more than $50 or so, then you should also think the m505 is equally overpriced. So I wouldn't expect the Prism price to drop until the m505 arrives, if at all.

The fact that I am never right might be good news for all of us, however.

Posted by VisorHead on 04-16-2001 04:31 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by Galley_SimRacer
and the keyboard is only $50 after rebate

Are you telling me that you can get a Stowaway keyboard for $50? Where is it available?

Posted by BEN on 04-16-2001 05:14 PM:

Handspring has very little say in what the stowaway cost. You also have to remembre that the IIIc was a dying product from the start, unlike the Handspring Prism which has been selling like hotcakes from day one.

BEN

Posted by yaz320 on 04-16-2001 08:06 PM:

quote:
Yeah the Prism is twice the price, but it's got the springboard slot, 16-bit color instead of 8-bit, USB instead of serial cradle, and a 33MHz instead of a 16 or 20MHz CPU.

Basically the Prism is almost comparable to the m505, so if you think the Prism should be reduced by more than $50 or so, then you should also think the m505 is equally overpriced. So I wouldn't expect the Prism price to drop until the m505 arrives, if at all.

The m505 is TECHNICALLY better, because its a lot smaller. There is no denying that the Prism needs to lose some weight...and it also doesn't have OS 4 or the Flash ROM to upgrade it to OS 4, so therefore the price of the m505 should be around $50 more for it.

I see good prices for the products as:

Visor Edge: $300
m500: $350
Visor Prism: $350
m505: $400

In order to keep people from my like going to Pocket PC 4 when it comes out...they better keep prices so I have extra $$$ to buy modules to deter me from a Pocket PC. PPC 4 might be a killer though...but hopefully we might see an ARM based Palm soon!!!

Posted by yaz320 on 04-16-2001 08:08 PM:

Ben says:

quote:
Handspring has very little say in what the stowaway cost. You also have to remembre that the IIIc was a dying product from the start, unlike the Handspring Prism which has been selling like hotcakes from day one.

I didn't know they were selling like hotcakes? Have proof to back that up? I know the iPaq is...

Posted by yardie on 04-16-2001 10:49 PM:

Yes they are

The Visor Prism is selling liek hotcakes. Look how much people on this board alone have switched from the Deluxe to the Prism? Compare the number of new posts in the Deluxe and other forums with the number of new posts in the Prism forum.

As for the PocketPC. I don't think it will take over Palm. Not until they stop the overkill (ie PC in your pocket). I think the PocketPC is for people that want a PC in their pocket. I dare to say most people do not want that. How do I know? I talk to people everyday with handhelds (I do tech support for handhelds). I have spoken to lots of people who have switched back from a PPC device such as ah Ipaq back to the Palm OS platform. The same reason they always give is that the PPC is just too much for them. It is NOT making their life simplier....it is making it more complicated with all these features they do NOT need. Some of these people dobn't even know what MP3 is much less to play MP3 on their PPC devices.

Posted by sdoersam on 04-17-2001 01:48 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by yaz320
Ben says:

I didn't know they were selling like hotcakes? Have proof to back that up? I know the iPaq is...

Just try going to your local CompUSA, Staples, Best Buy, etc and see if they have one in stock. I have never seen one in stock in the stores, and when I ask about them, it is always "We can't get enough of them in."

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Posted by yaz320 on 04-17-2001 02:19 PM:

quote:
Just try going to your local CompUSA, Staples, Best Buy, etc and see if they have one in stock. I have never seen one in stock in the stores, and when I ask about them, it is always "We can't get enough of them in."

That's true...but those guys never have anything in stock...CompUSA keeps like 1 of the thing that is onsale, so it is impossible to get anything there...

Posted by dalamar70 on 04-17-2001 08:13 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by sdoersam

I have never seen one in stock in the stores, and when I ask about them, it is always "We can't get enough of them in."

But that doesn't necessarily mean they're selling a lot of them...

Amazon.com has a "Top Sellers" list. For the handheld section, as of today they are showing:

1. IIIxe
2. iPaq 3635
3. Vx
4. m505
5. Xircom Rex 6000
6. m100
7. Graphite VDx
8. Corex CardScanner
9. m105
10. Blue Vdx

I don't know if these are daily rankings, or cumulative rankings, but they do change whenever I stumble upon them. (VE was on the list the last time I checked.)

Anybody know any other sites that rank their products?

Posted by sdoersam on 04-17-2001 08:53 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by dalamar70

But that doesn't necessarily mean they're selling a lot of them...

Amazon.com has a "Top Sellers" list. For the handheld section, as of today they are showing:

1. IIIxe
2. iPaq 3635
3. Vx
4. m505
5. Xircom Rex 6000
6. m100
7. Graphite VDx
8. Corex CardScanner
9. m105
10. Blue Vdx

I don't know if these are daily rankings, or cumulative rankings, but they do change whenever I stumble upon them. (VE was on the list the last time I checked.)

Anybody know any other sites that rank their products?

True. But if you go to the Handspring section on Amazon, you will see that the Prism is number 5 on that list, beating out both the Platinums, the Ice, Green and Orange Deluxes, the blue Edge and the Visor. So considering that only the Silver Edge, Blue VDX and Graphite VDX are outselling it, I would say that the Prism is a pretty successful product in Handspring's line. Especially considering that it is also the most expensive in their product line. Looking at the placement of the Blue VDX on the main list, I'm willing to bet that the Prism doesn't do to badly overall, but I'd want to see more data before making that leap.

Update: I'm willing to make that leap of faith now.

If you go to the PDA comparison charts on Amazon, and sort by best selling, the Prism comes up number 12, behind the M500 and ahead of the IIIc. Not to shabby.

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If at first you do succeed, try not to look astonished.

Posted by yaz320 on 04-17-2001 09:53 PM:

I would count different colors of the product as the same thing. So essentially most of those products beat out the Prism a LOT because they come in anywhere from 2-5 different colors.

The Prism will never beat out a cheaper unit, because there are SO MANY avg. Joes and Janes that will buy the cheap thing.

Posted by dalamar70 on 04-17-2001 10:00 PM:

You are truly the Amazon master. In doing a little more investigation, I see that each individual product has an "Amazon.com sales rank." The Prism is ranked 280, while the silver Plat is ranked 175, even though the Prism is ahead in the "Top Sellers" list. (The iPaq 3635 is ranked 13!) I wonder how they compute their numbers.

Posted by Galley_SimRacer on 04-18-2001 07:49 PM:

The IIIc and the keyboard are featured in this week's Best Buy ad, so I'm not sure if the reabate is limited to Best Buy. The two have to be purchased together, so I imagine it is.

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Posted by gbgood on 05-02-2001 08:08 PM:

Don't buy the IIIc. You'll be sorry.

The Graffiti stinks and you can't even click on buttons (on the screen). This is due to a digitizer problem which Palm Tech support says does not exist. Check IIIc usegroups. After buying one for my husband, I couldn't believe how bad the graffiti recog was compared to my Vdlx, on which I always write with my finger. I called Palm, they said I need to 'practice' graffiti more. I went to the IIIc newsgroups they said 'Take it back', 'Piece of junk'. I would give my kingdom for a Vdlx with color. Prism doesn't count. Too short of battery life to make it practical. Too big. Too pricey. Also have heard little rumblings about graffiti issues here too, and now I scared.

My Vdlx has NEVER failed me. It's taped. It's scratched. It's loose. It has velcro on it. It always works perfectly. Batteries last 30 days heavy daily use. Modem, backup mod, keyboard. visorphone on wishlist...

Posted by ChillaChilla on 05-02-2001 10:53 PM:

I took back 3 IIIc's -- all for the same problem -- the digitizer. I really want color - it's much easier for me to read, but for now I'll stick w/my VDx. I have absolutely NO COMPLAINTS about it -- nothing but praise. I especially appreciate the Springboard module for backup while I'm on the road (which is all day long).

Am considering the Prism, but would like to see some concession on the price (!).

By the way, my first 2 PDA's were Palms (III and IIIx), and I even tried a HP Jornada 540 in my search for color -- pretty, but tooooo sloowww and used up memory very quickly. I keep coming back to my Visor!

(Now that I read this, why am I even thinking about the M505?)

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