Registered: Sep 2001
Location:
Posts: 27

Handspring is committing (Revised)

Handspring is committing suicide after hearing the announcement that Handspring will soon discontinue our beloved visor I was mortified. I think this Idea of Handspring discontinuing the Visor is going to cause them to self-destruct. Handspring will no longer be able to keep up with the palm market and will soon realize they will have to go out of business. So, I have now decided to write e-mail to Handspring stating why they should keep the Visors. If you the loyal fans of visor could do this also we maybe able to get our visors back. Also I apologize for the last post.

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Sincerely,
Jeffdewber

Registered: Aug 2000
Location: New York City
Posts: 20

i dont understand the loyalty

I just don't understand all you people's loyalty to Handspring. I ordered my Visor Deluxe two days after they went on Sale back in September 1999. And I received it. At the time, It was the cheapest/ only 8 meg device. It was the only device with built in expansion. It still works and it only cost me $250. Handspring also pioneered 64000 color on the palm platform and USB Syncing.

I have probably spent as much on accessories for the thing as well.

At some point, I might get a new PDA but the Visor does what I want and what I need. If another device out there, perhaps a Sony or a Handera (do they have USB syncing?) or whomever purchases a device worth paying for then I will purchase it.

Your visor does not become worthless if Handspring stops making more of them. My visor does what I need it to do. I have a few modules but i only use the backup module.

I dont understand why people think Handspring has to be innovative to survive. They don't bleed that much money and the Treo could be a successs. Even if its not, the convergence of the Handheld and Phone will continue.

I just think some people out there are irrational and uninformed.

Registered: Jul 2000
Location:
Posts: 3034

Re: i dont understand the loyalty

quote:

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Originally posted by LouisW
I just don't understand all you people's loyalty to Handspring.

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Last edited by Toby on 01-19-2002 at 12:02 AM

Registered: Sep 2001
Location:
Posts: 27

The Statement issued by Jeff Hawkins is a joke. It is a pr stunt to get people back to buying handsprings.

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Sincerely,
Jeffdewber

Registered: Mar 2001
Location: San Diego, California
Posts: 441

quote:

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Originally posted by Jeffdewber
The Statement issued by Jeff Hawkins is a joke. It is a pr stunt to get people back to buying handsprings.

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You know it's bad when your Calculus Professor uses the word "Unpossible"

"It's a long way from my thoughts to what I'll say, It's a long, long way from paradise to where I am today." -Switchfoot, Home

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Metro Station, Hollywood and Highland
Posts: 1018

Toby wrote:
I predict that Donna is going to stop talking soon.

Ahh, if only . . .

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Eye of Gameboy

Registered: Mar 2001
Location: San Diego, California
Posts: 441

Unless its to introduce new products of course. But nothing else. No interviews. No dropping various products. Just to stand up in front of a webcam and say: "Here is our new device, it's got.....and has.....and finally....." and when she's done listing the specs she's rushed out of view of the webcam.

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You know it's bad when your Calculus Professor uses the word "Unpossible"

"It's a long way from my thoughts to what I'll say, It's a long, long way from paradise to where I am today." -Switchfoot, Home

Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 1571

deliberate Move

I think Donna thought through her statement before she made it. It was no mistake. People know well ahead of time what they are going to say in conference calls. I think that it is a kind of trial balloon and could even be a competitive tactic on their part.

quote:

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Originally posted by Gameboy70
Toby wrote:
I predict that Donna is going to stop talking soon.

Ahh, if only . . .

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location:
Posts: 27

Stupid Donna

I'm now starting to believe that Donna is no longer in control of Handspring anymore. Her discussion to destroy the visor line is a bad move on her part, and probably a way for her to get out of the company. Also I bet you that by March there will no longer be Handspring.

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Sincerely,
Jeffdewber

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Metro Station, Hollywood and Highland
Posts: 1018

yardie wrote:
I think Donna thought through her statement before she made it. It was no mistake.

Accident, no. Mistake, most definitely. No company with a precarious balance sheet like Handspring's should be so capricious about the fate of its one shipping product line. It's already prompted me to start taking steps to sell my Prism (the trial balloon that fell to Earth) and paraphernia. If I were a stockholder I'd be completely divested of Handspring by now.

Still, Donna's latest gaffe could have been (and will be, I'm sure) worse. I'm just waiting for her to come out and say the Treos are more popular than Jesus.

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Eye of Gameboy

Registered: Feb 2002
Location:
Posts: 4

"Going down" was the signal I got, too

I'm actually pretty new to the handheld world, having bought my Visor Dx right before the infamous announcement, but I've been working in and around the computer and telecommuncations industries since 1988. I'm can validly say that when a technology company announces the elimination of a flagship line of products, they are on the way down. And, when that flagship is the only line of products that they actually have ready to market, they have to be nuts. The fact that Handspring came back with a caveat that they will still distribute *some* Visor models seems like nothing more than a sugar pill given as a sop to an ailing stock (and handheld unit) buying public.

Bottom line - if I had seen the announcment before buying my handheld, you can bet I'd be walking around with a Palm M series or a Sony CLIE right now. I bought the Handspring because it had the most expandability and memory for the least price, and I was willing to sacrifice speed to get there. But even that nice low price wouldn't have swayed me if I'd known the product (and almost all the others like it) was discontinued! Even if Handspring survives this adventure into the unknown, what kind of product support will our plain-jane handhelds receive in a year or two? And there's obviously not going to be a big rush to develop new Springboards, or even continue building/marketing the ones that are out there now.

Here's hoping that we doubting Thomases are all wet...

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Regards,

Marla
Mesa AZ

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

Re: "Going down" was the signal I got, too

quote:

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Originally posted by MarlaJAP
Here's hoping that we doubting Thomases are all wet...

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I could spray ya with the hose if ya like.

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The light at the end of your tunnel has been disconnected due to non-payment. Please remit funds immediately for restoration of hope.

Registered: Feb 2002
Location:
Posts: 4

LOL!

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Regards,

Marla
Mesa AZ

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Plainview, NY
Posts: 116

180 degrees

As one of HS most loyal shills. I am doing a 180 degree turn.
HS has become a totally unresponsive company.
HS will go the way of Enron
Good LucK Jeff & Donna. You pulled a K. Lay
dabirk

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Dave B (Grandpa Geek)"If it ain't broke, don't fix it yet!
BUT IF IT IS PLEEZ FIX"

Registered: Jul 2000
Location:
Posts: 3034

Re: 180 degrees

quote:

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Originally posted by dabirk
As one of HS most loyal shills. I am doing a 180 degree turn.
HS has become a totally unresponsive company.
HS will go the way of Enron
Good LucK Jeff & Donna. You pulled a K. Lay
dabirk

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Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Plainview, NY
Posts: 116

I had just purchased an Edge (also a Visor owner) based on the free module promo.(HS Holiday promo)
I ordered a memplug and received a dictionary. I called Customer Care to complain and after going in circles I was told "Too Bad, we can do Nothing it's up to our promo company RebatesHQ
When I contact them I also received the same response.
I will never truct HS again until they treat their customers with some respect and not take us for fools
dabirk

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Dave B (Grandpa Geek)"If it ain't broke, don't fix it yet!
BUT IF IT IS PLEEZ FIX"

Registered: Feb 2002
Location:
Posts: 5

I've been visiting this site since it was created (those heady days in 1999) and all I did up to now was lurk. The only thing that's bringing me out of hiding now is the compulsion to express my misgivings about where Handspring's headed. In my opinion, what Dubinsky did was a truly boneheaded play. That she made the statement to placate some investors is the most charitable interpretation I can give it. I

have encouraged -- even helped -- at least three people buy Prisms. After that Dubinsky announcement I told another friend to drop the Prism and go Clie, so Handspring lost that sale (two actually, because he bought himself a couple of Clies). I'm going to continue using my own Visor for at least another year, maybe two (I got four years out of my Palm Professional) but I'm not going to stick my neck out and give any further endorsements to a product line that might soon be extinct, or a collector's edition.



alan

Registered: May 2001
Location: Madison, WI
Posts: 101

I think Handspring would go out of business eventually even if it does keep it's Visor line. The new Palm i705 makes the Treo pale in comparison. I have used the Kyocera Smartphone (the cell phone with Palm OS screen). From my experience with that, I don't believe that a phone and a PDA were meant to live in the same unit. Having a phone and PDA as the same device is awkward, and the screen sizes inevitably get smaller, or oddly sized. I think Palm has the right idea with the i705: Always on. Always connected, email, messaging, web, all in the format we have come to know and love. I think no one in their right mind would buy a Treo, especially seeing how other PDA/phones have entered the market and been so soon forgotten about. If you want connectivity, stick with the cell phone you've got, and buy the Palm i705, or a Blackberry or something.

I have yet to be amazed by anything Handspring has done over the past 2 years. When I bought my Platinum a year ago, I had high hopes. What a bummer.

So what does Handspring have right now:
1. The Treo
2. It's Visor line.

1b. Other connected PDAs will crush the Treo's sales. IE: i705, or the Blackberry, or some other PDA with a peripheral modem.
2b. Palm and Sony (especially Sony) will crush the sales of the Visor line.

I rest my case.

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Location: Metro Station, Hollywood and Highland
Posts: 1018

PastaGrrrl wrote:
I think Handspring would go out of business eventually even if it does keep it's Visor line. The new Palm i705 makes the Treo pale in comparison. I have used the Kyocera Smartphone (the cell phone with Palm OS screen). From my experience with that, I don't believe that a phone and a PDA were meant to live in the same unit. Having a phone and PDA as the same device is awkward, and the screen sizes inevitably get smaller, or oddly sized.

I'm not sure how extensive your "have used" is on the Kyocera Smartphone, but after a week and a half, I'm extremely satisfied with the one I just purchased. The Treo has superior ergonomics, but isn't CDMA yet.

The size of the screen does inevitably get smaller, which is the compromise for losing the deadweight of a second device. In my case the benefit far outweighs the cost. Inevitably, some people are going to compare the size of the screen with devices that have come before. When the Pilot was released, many pundits were quick to note how small the screen was relative to the Newton. The Newton drew even more criticism when it was released, having the misfortune of a screen too small for "serious" computing (i.e. it wasn't a laptop).

Handspring should have released the Treo simultaneously with the GPRS rollout for maximum impact; then it be obviously superior to the Blackberry or the i705. If I valued push email above everything else, I'd take the Blackberry over the i705 for the keyboard alone. Since device consolidation is even more important to me than wireless connectivity, I'd go for the Treo. Push email is more of a priority for the burgeoning enterprise market than it is for consumer market. Social email is too casual for consumers to pay for anything beyond a dialup wireless connection, at least for the short term.

I think Palm has the right idea with the i705: Always on. Always connected, email, messaging, web, all in the format we have come to know and love. I think no one in their right mind would buy a Treo, especially seeing how other PDA/phones have entered the market and been so soon forgotten about. If you want connectivity, stick with the cell phone you've got, and buy the Palm i705, or a Blackberry or something.

I wouldn't even consider the i705 or Blackberry. I refuse to go back to carrying around a second device, and won't pay for another wireless service provider. But it will probably be a hit in the enterprise market. Initial sales have been stronger than expected.

But as a consumer, until Handspring releases a CDMA Treo, I'll stick to the cell phone I've got

Other PDA/phones, especially the Nokia 9210 in Europe, are selling quite well. Since cell phones outsell PDAs by a factor of 100, a poor selling cell phone still does better than any PDA that isn't a blockbuster. They enjoy better distribution channels (Cingular and Sprint PCS stores, mall kiosks, etc.) and require less explanation than standalone PDAs. No one ever asks, "What do you use a cell phone for?".

Fast Company did an article on the Kyocera development team last year, and the project leader's conservative projections for the 6035 were 250,000 units in one quarter. He deliberately downgraded his estimates to minimize the repercussions from upper management if sales turned out to be as frosty as the earlier pdQ. I haven't found any returns on the 6035 yet, but if sales were in line with lower-end projections, they would exceed the VDX's first quarter.

The fact that a 3G-ready 6035 and a new Samsung hybrid (the i330) will be released this year suggests that sales have been encouraging, to say the least.

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Eye of Gameboy

Registered: May 2001
Location: Madison, WI
Posts: 101

quote:

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I'm not sure how extensive your "have used" is on the Kyocera Smartphone, but after a week and a half, I'm extremely satisfied with the one I just purchased. The Treo has superior ergonomics, but isn't CDMA yet.

I wouldn't even consider the i705 or Blackberry. I refuse to go back to carrying around a second device, and won't pay for another wireless service provider. But it will probably be a hit in the enterprise market. Initial sales have been stronger than expected.

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P.S. I feel at home with geeks like you.