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Handspring's Battery Life Propaganda


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argent
Member

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 391

Re: About S105

quote:
Originally posted by michaelliumm
The Samsung S105 supports over 65,000 colors while the Treo only supports 4,000. The S105 also has higher density pixels, creating a sharper looking screen. It also has an IR port for communication with other devices.

Yeh, I know what 12- and 16- bit color means. What about my other questions?

Possibly we're looking at it from different viewpoints. See, my cellphone is still one of those vaguely phallic Nokias, because they have a huge battery and use it all for cellphone functions. It's got a display that would embarass a gameboy, only a handful of basic builtin games, but I can pretty much depend on having a phone when I need it.

I've tried carrying a T-Mobile Pocket PC. It's got a gorgeous screen and everything, but it just wasn't dependable as a phone. And it wasn't much of a PDA.

Anyway, it's 128x160 pixels, smaller than the Treo. It's running a proprietary OS and you can only download software that your service porovider makes available. It's probably a better phone than the Treo, but it doesn't look like much of a PDA either.

This is the problem. Handspring's got three markets: their diminishing Visor user base, the people looking mainly for an organizer, and the people looking mainly for a phone. Handspring's bet the farm on that third group being bigger than either of the others. The problem is, that third group doesn't care if their phone is running PalmOS or some closed undocumented OS with a Java interpreter built in. So how can Handspring hope to get traction in that market?

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Rev. Peter da Silva, ULC 
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03-08-2003 11:19 PM

michaelliumm
Member

Registered: Jun 2002
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 14

I Agree

I couldn't have said it better myself. Look, people want a phone to be a phone. They want their cell phones small and sleek and they want good looking screens. Now the S105 has basic PIN functions on par with those of the PalmOS. But is the added ability to add Palm Apps to your phone justifiable for the Treo's size and demeaner? After all, once you get tired of the thought have having a hybrid communicator, you'll still be using it just as a phone 90% of the time. Get the best of both worlds, a Sony T68i or Motorola V.60g or a Samsung A500 with a Tungsten T or Clie NX70.

03-09-2003 05:27 AM

argent
Member

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 391

Re: I Agree

quote:
Originally posted by michaelliumm
I couldn't have said it better myself. Look, people want a phone to be a phone. They want their cell phones small and sleek and they want good looking screens.

How much time do you actually spend looking at your phone's screen? My Nokia's already got a larger display than I really need, but at least it's mono so it doens't suck that much power. So long as you can connect it to your handheld, who cares what kind of display it has?

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Rev. Peter da Silva, ULC 
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03-09-2003 06:15 AM

michaelliumm
Member

Registered: Jun 2002
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 14

Be Realistic Here

How many times are you honestly going to stop in the middle of an airport or in a taxi to plug ur cell phone into your pda with a wobbly cord? Unless you're a technophile that does it constantly for novelty, I would guess no often. It's all about quick, convenient, stylish access to key information and functions. That's a what many new color screen cell phone o GPRS provide. Rich content that's quick, easy, and fun to use, without the Treo's baggage.

03-09-2003 06:28 AM

argent
Member

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 391

Re: Be Realistic Here

quote:
Originally posted by michaelliumm
How many times are you honestly going to stop in the middle of an airport or in a taxi to plug ur cell phone into your pda with a wobbly cord?

I'm not, that's why I've got a PDA that can store almost all the information I might need locally. Plus I don't need to pay airtime charges to check my flight time, or worry if I can get a good signal.

If I was going to do it a lot I'd use Bluetooth.

In an airport, I'd use WiFi.

The bottom line is, there's two divergent populations. I'm on one side, you're on the other... and Handspring is trying to market to the intersection of the two.

They shoulda stuck with the Visor.

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Rev. Peter da Silva, ULC 
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03-09-2003 06:20 PM

michaelliumm
Member

Registered: Jun 2002
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 14

Yeah

If they had stuck with the Visor and developed it into a class leading machine, then it would still be very competetive today. Unfortunately, they adopted a different philosophy and tried to get on the crossover bandwagon. History has proved that pda phones just don't work very well and aren't widely accepted. Now the Treo may be the market's best attempt to date, but that isn't saying much. You're right in that Handspring should have stuck with refining the organizer, because it's clear people would rather have the two (pda and phone) seperately.

03-09-2003 07:52 PM

tealwheel
Member

Registered: Feb 2003
Location:
Posts: 25

yeah, a Prism w/just one or 2 of the newer things Sony puts into its pdas (hi res or + or 320x320) would slam dunk all the others

even the great Sonys don't have periph like SB, and you have to wait for modems, kybds, etc

03-09-2003 11:54 PM

michaelliumm
Member

Registered: Jun 2002
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 14

I Agree

I guess the only REAL problem is that the industry is sick of the names Visor and Springboard. The two words already have a connotation of failure or backward progression. No one is willing to invest in anymore Visor products, especially if they involve Springboard. The only remote way they could get away with it is if they took out the springboard/ detacheable springboard and added highend features.

03-09-2003 11:59 PM

argent
Member

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 391

The "industry" may be sick of them, but they're still selling. And if you took out the Springboard you wouldn't have a product, as the Edge demonstrated.

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Rev. Peter da Silva, ULC 
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03-10-2003 05:32 AM

Yorick
Member

Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Out of my skull, back in five minutes
Posts: 1435

Re: Yeah

quote:
Originally posted by michaelliumm
If they had stuck with the Visor and developed it into a class leading machine, then it would still be very competetive today. Unfortunately, they adopted a different philosophy and tried to get on the crossover bandwagon.

This is the inherent flaw with taking a risk. It's risky.

03-10-2003 11:27 AM

argent
Member

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 391

They didn't need to take that risk. If they had come out with a "Prism Pro" instead of the Treo 90, it would have cost them less in development costs and sold a lot better.

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03-10-2003 02:05 PM

J. Kevin Wolfe
Member

Registered: Jul 2002
Location: Cincinnati OH
Posts: 11

The screensizes are different to. You'd proabably have an "easier" time with a Prizm screen.

03-10-2003 03:47 PM

michaelliumm
Member

Registered: Jun 2002
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 14

Prism Pro

A Prism Pro would have been really kool. But they still would have had to change the casing. It was getting old. Otherwise, the insides just needed OS5 and and ARM processor and more expansion besides springboard. Oh, and a high def screen. Plus they needed to price it under $400. So after saying all that, I guess I would conclude that if they had brought out a Prism Pro right after the first generation went, then it would have been a lot easier then making the treo90. But if they were to do it today with everything people would expect now, I'm sure the developement costs would be astronomical. And if you look at the Tungsten T, you see that it just isn't worth it. Therefore, the Treo 90 wasn't a terrible idea. They aimed lower and it payed off. At least sort of.

03-11-2003 12:23 AM

argent
Member

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 391

Re: Prism Pro

quote:
Originally posted by michaelliumm
if they had brought out a Prism Pro right after the first generation went, then it would have been a lot easier then making the treo90.

Doh. You wouldn't introduce a Prism Pro today.

I'm not sure how you figure the Treo 90 paid off. They had 10-20% of the handheld market with the Visor, and most of the time the Visor by itself was outselling all the Pocket PCs put together. The Treo 90's share of the handheld market is miniscule.

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03-11-2003 12:41 AM

michaelliumm
Member

Registered: Jun 2002
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 14

What's ur point?

That was back in the late nineties. Visor's only truly brilliant innovation was the springboard, but that just didn't catch on. And it stopped innovating and died. So yeah ur right, but what's ur point? When the visor had 10-20% market share, there were MUCH fewer models available in general and also that was back when it was still fairly in the now to have a visor. But like I said, they just stopped innovating and improving it at the springboard, so it couldn't have stayed alive. Its a matter of time and industry change.

03-11-2003 02:42 AM

quake8
Member

Registered: Dec 2002
Location:
Posts: 2

I think everyones phone is broken but mine.

I charge it every night.
talk for about 60+ min a day use about 20 minutes of vision (active data tranfers) do a LOT of txt messaging and email on my phone

I charge it at about 1am each night and it is almost always on the last black bar or just going on RED but NEVER has died

using it on my laptop as a modem for more then 45min kills it but other then that Im completely fine

you all have defective TREO's or do not know what you are doing

03-24-2003 09:26 PM

argent
Member

Registered: Jan 2000
Location:
Posts: 391

Re: What's ur point?

quote:
Originally posted by michaelliumm
That was back in the late nineties. Visor's only truly brilliant innovation was the springboard, but that just didn't catch on. And it stopped innovating and died.

That was late 2001, actually, and the only thing that killed it was handspring's decision to kill it. The Springboard in those two years had more devices available for it, just for the Visor, than all other expansion mechanisms for handhelds put together.

That's not "not catching on". Sony would be deleriously happy if their memory sticks "didn't catch on" that well. In fact, I'd call that "robust success". The problem wasn't that the modules didn't catch on, the problem is Handspring wasn't interested in the modules except that it made it easier for them to build the Visorphone. They didn't need to wait for FCC approval for the whole unit, just the module.

It's not a matter of "time" or "industry change". In fact, I'd say the industry still wants *something* like the Springboard... Secure Digital, Compact Flash, all these are far more complex to design for, and have slower and less reliable and robust interfaces. There's no way a company could afford to develop a CF (let alone SD) verson of many of the Springboards that came out. The only alternative right now, really, is a serial sled. And that's a BIG cut in speed from th Springboard.

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Rev. Peter da Silva, ULC 
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03-24-2003 11:00 PM

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