Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Indiana
Posts: 84

Would you be satisfied with moral leadership?

I'm fascinated to read the comments in this thread.

IMHO, I think it's a little naive to think that we can use our VDx's forever - that SpringBoards will relieve us of the need to overhaul our hardware. It's like thinking that buying a little plug-in will let us run our 80286 MS-DOS PC's on the Net. That's just not realistic in this world. So we accept that we have cutting edge hardware when we buy it within minutes of its release, and that its value depreciates geometrically from there on out. I sleep well knowing that my VDx is not the premier Handspring product anymore. It still does well by me, and I by it.

But I digress hard from my original thought. Let me throw this out to the gallery...

Handspring has done what they promised with their SpringBoards. All Handspring-manufactured SpringBoards are functional with all brands and levels of Visor. Module incompatibility is the fault of the Novatels and other 3rd party providers, as Handspring apparently is so willing to tell us individually.

So why can't Handspring's leadership take that position public? Why can't Hawkins or one of his peers take advantage of the major public speaking engagements we read about from the industry trade shows and publicly chastise the 3rd party providers for not living up to the promise of Handspring's SpringBoard platform? To say that they're losing potential for valuable customers (like us)? To use their position to take the sides of the customers? To tell the 3rd party providers that Handspring is not happy because its customers aren't happy?

It seems to me that Handspring really can't DO anything else because it appears that they wrote their SpringBoard specs with a hole that would allow for segregation by OS. That's a mistake, I believe, but they seem to be able to work within self-imposed OS limitations.

Take a minute and think it over. Would that satisfy you?

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 17

I too am disappointed that the Prism / Platinum don't have the ability to upgrade the OS. The color and wireless are really appealing to me, but the expectation that I'll need to upgrade machines to take advantage of new OS features runs counter to the basic thrifty appeal of the springboards.

I wondered if the lack of flash-OS is really about trade-offs in machine memory, or if it's a constraint in Handspring's licensing from Palm.

Here's a solution: Make the Prism II with a flash-OS, and give a trade-in replacement for any early-adopter Prism buyers. (Do that and I'll buy one tomorrow!)

Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 85

quote:

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Originally posted by BaseMan
I haven't seen this mentioned in this thread, but GoAmerica has just released the Minstrel S. In the box, according to my sales rep, there is a coupon for a FREE upgrade to an "enhanced" Visor Deluxe from Handspring. This enhancement will enable the modem to work with a VDX without interference. Actually, the Modem will work with a regular VDX, but there my be too much interference to work satisfactorily.

I'm assuming that OmniSky and YadaYada are imposing the upgrade to a Platinum or Prism due to their software (web browsers and communications) relying heavily on PalmOS 3.5

So it is really not Novatel imposing the OS upgrade, it is the wireless service providers.

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