Traveliter
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Registered: Jan 2000
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[Note to moderators: I think this is of general interest, so I'm posting this here instead of in the User Group forum.]
If you read another thread here, you heard that Handspring was going to host a user group reception in San Francisco today.
My husband and I got up in the wee hours of the morning so we could ride BART into the city in time for the 8:00am sign-in at the Sheraton Palace Hotel.
The hotel turns out to be right by the BART station, so we got there before 7:30am (which is usually when I'm starting to wake up in the morning). We were early, but the room was already set up, with tables, chairs, pitchers of water, as well as coffee, juice, and pastries.
We went in and took a seat up front (I had no shame; I wanted to be up close). By the time the presentation started at 8:30am, the room was pretty much filled to capacity (I would say maybe 150 people).
We were given a video presentation on the large screen. This was just a short promo piece with Jeff Hawkins, Donna Dubinsky and Ed Colligan (Handspring marketing) giving short snippets on what they thought were good about Visors. These snippets were interspersed with actors who played the part of various Visor owners ("He has a graphite, I have ice."). Basically a high-energy piece to get you upbeat and excited.
After this presentation, Handspring's user group liaison (Lisa) welcomed everyone, then allowed representatives of various user groups to stand up and say hi. There were folks from the San Francisco Palm User Group, the Diablo Valley Palm User Group (in Walnut Creek, a Bay Area suburb), as well as folks from such far-flung locations as Minneapolis, and Santa Fe (New Mexico).
The morning's only speaker was none other than Handspring CEO Donna Dubinsky herself! [I was pretty excited learning about this at the Handspring booth at the MacWorld Expo exhibit hall the previous day, since I really admire what she's done professionally. It's seldom that I act like a "fan," and for me, sitting in the front pew ... erm... row, and taking a snapshot of her was about the most fan-like behavior you'd see out of me!]
Ms. Dubinsky thanked everyone for coming, and for being a part of the volunteer corp of user group members who take time out of their schedules to be involved.
She then gave a talk that she says she often gives "in the business" (I would assume she means either investors, future partners, etc.). She discussed:
- The future of personal computing: Looking across time and moving away from larger machines to desktops, then to handhelds, she feels the future is in the "PERSONAL computing market," which the handhelds are a part of. [I guess I need to note here that my impression of her use of "personal computing" was not the same as the "personal computers = PCs" thing, but to have the computer on one's person. To make it personal, to make it your very own.] In what thought was a rather amusing slide, she showed the timeline of the handheld as (I believe):
1. Palm III
2. Palm V
3. Palm VII
4. Palm IIIc
4. Visor
5. Visor Prism/Platinum
... indicating an evolution in the direction of Visor and Springboard modules (there was *NO* M100s to be found on that chart, anywhere).
- The future of Internet access: She believes lies in access via personal computers such as handhelds. This, she said, was because the network of choice for the Internet will be the telephone network because of things like packet data support, and voice/data support. [That is, even with talk of other networks, the one that emerges for consumers will be the telephone network.] "The language of mobile access will be html."
In all this, she feels that the handheld has a very important role because it will define the user's experience. She went on to quote someone (sorry, didn't catch the name) when she said, "Only 39 steps to the Internet" in referring to the "ease" of going online from a standard desktop machine, as compared to that of the wireless handheld experience.
Ms. Dubinsky said Handspring is the leading provider of handheld computing products, providing both "thought leadership" and "product leadership" in the field, as evidenced by Handspring's having just achieved their shipping out their one millionth Visor this month.
- She went on to give the list of distributors, which she said is still in the roll-out process. Visors are already being sold at various worldwide locations in Japanese, French and German, and will soon be shipping in Italian and Spanish. They opened a second manufacturing plant in Central America to augment the plant they have in Singapore (I think the dot on the map was Singapore, anyway).
The current new thing out of Handspring is the VisorPhone, which uses the GSM system that is considered the standard in Europe. With the GSM system comes something called "SMS," or "Short Messaging Service." A hybrid between paging and email, these short messages can be sent via VisorPhone to others with SMS capabilities (this is REALLY REALLY popular in Europe, but almost unheard of in the US).
Everybody's ears perked up when she started talking about the future of Handspring. Although she said she couldn't go into specifics, she did mention:
- Expansion of core product line
- Promotion of Springboard modules
- Evolve wireless strategy
In the near-term, launch VisorPhone.
In the medium-term, "More form factors."
and in the long term: "Aggressive data support as networks support it."
Ms. Dubinsky then opened the floor up for questions, and there were a few. One had to do with whether the display screens will be improving. She said this was one area that could use some improving, and that display companies are now approaching Handspring on a regular basis with various ideas. She compares this to the early days when they were developing the original Pilot, when the sole bidder for the display was a company that made displays for pagers and cell phones. Apparently all the other companies felt this was either too small a market, or too small a project.
Another person asked about whether the VisorPhone would become available in other non-GSM formats. She acknowledged that this is something they will expand into later on. The GSM format was released now because of Handspring's focus on being a global product, and not just focused on the US.
Another question was about the Palm OS, and whether Handspring would always run on a Palm OS. She responded that Handspring, being an independent company, is not necessarily tied to Palm OS and that Handspring is open to changes if something else comes along that is better.
Similarly, someone asked if Handspring saw Palm as a competitor or a partner. This drew out some chuckles from the audience. Ms. Dubinsky replied that at one level, they are partners with Palm. "Every unit we sell, we pay a royalty to Palm. We happen to like the technology... NO COINCIDENCE THERE (laughter)."
However at the store level, Handspring does indeed compete with Palm because it's a matter of whether a customer would purchase a Visor or a Palm. She explained, however (this is a very close paraphrase):
"I think what makes it work is that there really is so much growth ahead, that it's more about new features and expanding the market, rather than market share. If this were a stagnant market for laundry soap, it would be much more difficult. They (Palm) would rather have us on their team than not. Given that, they basically support us well."
Another person asked if Handspring would consider a customizable portal such as what Palm did in its MyPalm site. She noted that while there is nothing she can announce, the fact that Handspring recently acquired BlueLark Systems, makers of the Blazer browser, may be an indication that Visor users can expect something similar "to happen over time."
With this last question, everyone bid adieu to Ms. Dubinsky as we moved onward to the next portion of the reception. Miles (one of the Handspring hosts) gave a short presentation on the VisorPhone, and then we were onto the giveaways. Those who had signed in and dropped a (business) card in the fish bowl had a chance to win some freebies, including a Visor Deluxe (orange), and a Visor Prism.
While I was a winner, I got a Handspring T-shirt. Congrats to the two folks who won new Visors, though.
Those who hadn't registered for the MacWorld Expo were given free exhibit hall passes so they could visit the Handspring booth. [That made hubby happy, since he didn't win anything in the drawing.]
If you are still planning on attending the MacWorld Expo or its exhibit hall, Handspring is giving presentations every half hour on both the Visor models, and the VisorPhone. The reward for sticking around, is that you get to have your name put in for a drawing for either a Targus Stowaway Keyboard, or a Visor... at the end of EACH presentation!! While I was there yesterday, I attended two presentations (they gave away one ice Deluxe, and one Platinum).
That's it from me!!
PS: I took good notes because I was touch-typing into my Stowaway!! Woo hoo!!
[Edited by Traveliter on 01-10-2001 at 04:47 PM]
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<B>Traveliter</B>/ Lani Teshima. 2000: Blue Vdx. 2001: Vpl. Travel writer, <A href="http://www.mouseplanet.com/lani/">MousePlanet.com</A>
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01-10-2001 09:42 PM
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