Madkins007
Member
Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Nebraska- the Good life
Posts: 695 |
 Re: Shucks
quote:
Originally posted by HindeR
I called Handspring corporate last week (650-230-5000) and begged them to give a little hope that a Prism upgrade will be coming so as to keep me as a Handspring customer and prevent me from buying something else. All I got was the standard reply of "We can not comment on future releases."
Of course, commenting on future releases causes LOTS of problems for tech companies- if things don't go well, it gets called vaporware or worse; sales of current models tend to die off; you give your competetors a head's up as to where the next competition is going to be and more. There really is not a lot of motivation to pre-announce... except maybe either desperation or absolute confidence.
Also... you gotta wonder about where Jeff Hawkins wants to go now. According to the book 'Piloting Palm' and other sources, he seems pretty sold on the 'communicator' idea. I wonder, in these days of declining sales and profits, how many projects they can really push on at once?
Another question- which direction is the PDA market going? Features and higher price? Simplicity and cheapness?
Some people have guessed, quite reasonably I think, that a 'Prism II' (or a color Edge) would run about $399, putting it in pretty direct competition with the Sony's and PocketPC's. Is this a 'good' place for a smaller company like Handspring to be?
This is just a guess, but I find myself thinking along slightly different lines...
Visor Pro or Neo in color (Visor Spectum?) Same form factor if technically possible, otherwise rigged to allow it to fit as many Deluxe cases as possible. 16 Mb (eh, maybe.), version 4.0 OS or newer, speaker- at least enough for an alarm, Screen similar to Prism but daylight viewable. Initial cost- $350, dropping to $299 the first Christmas, and settling at $250 (with the Prism dropping to $199 or so until sold out, or a solid trade-in program for them.)
Or...
A even less expensive model (The Visor Basic? Nah, not 'sexy' enough!) designed to use the Springboard slot with memory expansion as opposed to internal memory- similar to the old Visor with 2 MB (I am guessing it would have 4 Mb). It would have a newer OS and a louder alarm, and possibly a removeable faceplate (to allow it to be better customized to target groups), and use NiMH batteries, designed to be recharged in the cradle (like the Prism), but able to use 'AAA's when necessary.
It might be bundled with a CF card module, and then a series of CF cards pre-loaded with software and documents useful to different groups- grade school and older students, law students, med students, home-makers, seniors, etc. The cards would just be an added value- more a marketing ploy than a real benefit- pitched as 'use right out of the box!' functionality/ simplicity.
I can see these as being designed to eventually sell for as close to $100 as possible- or under, aiming stright for the 'cool but too expensive' audience- then picking them up with another model as they upgrade. (After all, they will have all these cool modules to re-use!)
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Do what you can, with what you have, where you are at!
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03-06-2002 01:30 PM
Amen
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