Comments on: Handspring Expects to Be Profitable by June

Handspring is just a bug splattered on Sony's windshield. Not worth the time for a lenghty comment.

There are you happy?

Actually, I've seen S series users complain about MS add-ons not working on their devices. Then, someone always fires back with "the Treo doesn't support springboards." Then, it is explained again that it is a different product line than the Visor. Then someone comes back with "All Sony product lines support Memory sticks." Then, finally, someone comes back with the Camera and GPS Memory Sticks don't work with the walkman.

It's a script we've been following whenever an article involving Sony or Handspring comes out. Let's just forego this repeat of the same discussion. It is true, the Treo doesn't support springboards. It is also true that Memory Stick add-ons are not supported by all CLIEs.

Please, let's leave this one be.

They have been in business all this time and done nothing but lost money. Everything they sell is outdated. The most pathetic thing is all the Handspring apologists who think the Treo is going to change everything. It won't happen. Handspring is going down. Say bye-bye.

"They have been in business all this time and done nothing but lost money. Everything they sell is outdated. The most pathetic thing is all the Handspring apologists who think the Treo is going to change everything. It won't happen. Handspring is going down. Say bye-bye."

What a pathetic post... All companies lose money, specially when they are on the market for so little time. Did you hear the word "investment"? Handspring is the number two PDA seller. It sells more tban all PPC devices. Stop crying if you don´t have money for a Treo...

This phone will not suceed, especially in the North American market. No guys here dare to pay a mono-chrome phone for $400 with limited choice of service providers.

Look at the Nokia phones right here right now. They are the oldest of all, and people always look for free cell-phone when signing up a two-year contract. Maybe that's why. North America never focus on quality of life; it focus on value. Just look at McDonalds and Wal-mart in America. They are a different story in Europe.

P.S. It may be better in Europe and Asia, but I heard nothing about any wireless carriers over there.

Sprint just warned for the coming quarters, so I do not understand your definition of doing well, bla bla bla.

Just wake up folks. Just look at your friends and collegues beside you. Look at the cell-phones they are using right now (bought and paid by them), and took a little stat with your Palm. You will find out the majority cost of the cell-phone they bought is a whopping $100-150 US.

A seperate PDA and a seperate cell-phone is a better combination because of choice of carriers. Also, you can upgrade either unit at a time rather than you have to buy an all-new treo every time.

The best combination is a blue-tooth cell-phone, a blue-tooth Palm PDA and a set of blue-tooth wireless earphones. That will make wireless perfect.

By the way, I refer that Treo will fail in America. Cell-phone is a different story in Europe and Asia, but it does not mean the Treo can suceed over there because of the lack of market presence.

> That's always a market for high-end products, just
like BMW

The TREO ain't a high-end product. Yes, it's expensive at $400 but the feature set don't make it high-end.

And GSM is plain stupid in the US market.

Sorry, no cigar.

Looks that IM poster above me is not very happy about my post, but the fact is that if a Jaguar sells a Focus, it will screw up.

Compilers and mice are different products and serve different functions, and so are IBM's servers and laptops - hopefully you recognized that.

No single company/brand is successful to lure all spectrum users at the same time for one group of product. That is what called marketing and targeted consumers. Just like Ford cannot sell an X-Type and Jaguar cannot sell a Focus.

Exactly. No company can survive filling just one market, unless is a VERY good market. Look at how blackberry is killing itself, they are making a product that has a specific function that only appeal to corporate users, and well...al gore. They have one type of product and once the market for that paticular product is full, they are in trouble, like they are now.

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Stuffing feathers up your ass does not make you a chicken.

OK let continue with your weak car analogy. IS the mono treo priced to be the luxury car of PDAs?

No, it is the high end of the general consumer market. The "Maxima" of PDAs at 399.00. Try getting a newly released PPC at that price. With unique features that no luxury priced PDA can match.

Mercedes sells expensive cars, but they also have a "cheap" model, the A-Class; so Handspring will have the Treo on one side and the Deluxe or Neo on the other (although they are not the same thing) whether you like it or not...

You americans don't cease to amuse me. You think you are the only ones! The treo will be a smash hit in europe where mobile phone users want more and pda users want mobile communications!

My guess is the same people who will buy a Segway ("IT"). I can just picture them zipping around, through, and over pedestrians while they simultaneously talk and play solitaire on their Treos.
Oh, then there will be the above mentioned savvy europeans who spend most of their cell phone minutes downloading ring tones and other highly constructive pursuits.

Another .02. The actual $ idea.
$120 for a mid range nextel phone.
$200 for a PalmVx
$400 for Blackberry 850, cheapest one you can get.
=$720 Treo $400
Obviously Treo is a better choice for business. Less work for ITs means less ITs. Less TCO means less spent on support. Also a lot easier to write software for as there more dev tools and many 3rd party shops that can be hired to do this. Imagine you have a single prog. for all your handhelds that gives you access to the company's database or whatever, less development, less money spent. A savings in every area.

Obviously prices will not be the same if you are buying in bulk, but that'll still make the Treo cheaper and more feature pact.

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Stuffing feathers up your ass does not make you a chicken.

The market for Blackberrys right now is dismal, if you read the report from RIMM last quarter. It does not matter whether you want to invade which market, and you have to know what are you doing.

First, Handspring has no enterprise presence (all most.) This company still has a full line-up of low end models. If you says Handspring can invade in the enterprise market, that comes a question - why cannot company purchase seperate PDAs and phones at the same time, due to the fact that wireless carriers are more flexible in this way, especially globally?

Just look at this - A PDA/Phone w/o a contract worths $599. That's even more than buying two seperate things and have more flexbility.

P.S. By the way, it does not matter how many Blackberrys your company buy/bought. It only matters how many of them are sold in each quarter - or you can look at the revenue for RIMM. That tells you whether the market exist or now. And Don't argue to me that Blackberrys' market is having a good time right now. Those folks at RIMM already said they will lose money in the coming QUARTERS! A fact is a fact. It is not come from your mouth.

Coyote67, this message is particularly for you.

Did you know that the new GSM/GPRS network already support you to use your cell-phone to check e-mail and tells you an email has arrived? Do you know what is always-on?

So why does one need to bother with a Blackberry?
So the combo looks like this:

A cell-phone $100-150 without a contract
A m500 or Sony T415 $300

Total $400-450 without a contract

Yet you can choose different wireless carriers. It also good for travelers cross-continent.

Do you need to know more before speaking?

Wow, do we connect to our PDAs by only bluetooth?

How about when the times that we do not have bluetoth?

Have you heard of infra-red, or a cable?

Finally, the Treo size is contradicting, from what you say. A size close to a cell-phone but it is a PDA. How about the screen. Unless the screen is foldable, its size alone will be much bigger than a cell-phone.

Tall about synergy. I do know that there is more complexity in Treo itself:

1)wireless carriers
2)global connection (cross-continents)
3)no expansion now or later
4)no upgrade e.g. memory
5)a size that is not big enough to be a PDA and small enough to be a cell-phone
6)poor battery life as an PDA or a phone, individually
7)What should I do when sometimes I need only a cell-phone or a PDA?
8)Finally, back to the price. $599 without a contract!

P.S. Handspring Prism + visorphone = $299 with a contract is bigger, but it is actually much cheaper.

P.S. who says you can't pick your carrier? Cingular does GPS, so does Voicestream. In europe you got a bagillion more options. Blackberry is limited, and is not international. I guess they are going to fix this with their new device that uses gps.

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Stuffing feathers up your ass does not make you a chicken.

Very true about handspring having almost no relationship with enterprises, but thats why they are making alliances with so many companys that focus on enterprise.

The reason the treo can connect to corporate email network is simply because it has the necessary software. Handspring is allied with infowave just for this. Take a look at http://makeashorterlink.com/?X2CA6453. Heres a small clip.

Under the arrangement, the companies will work together to pair the new Treo™ family of compact communicators, as well as Handspring Visors™ and Springboard™ expansion modules, with the Infowave Wireless Business Engine to enable fast, secure and reliable wireless access to a range of enterprise data including email, corporate intranets and client/server applications.

Regular cell phones have limited memory and are made for the typical consumer. Equipment that connects to corporate networks need to be configured per network. Since these cell phones are made for regular consumers, they won't have this function. My sprintpcs phone doesn't connect to my corporate network because its not marketed for the corporate field. However, my blackberry does since it is directly marketed to corporations as a device to send/receive corporate email. Treo is being marketed to the same market first, then consumer later. The treo won't do aswell with consumers as it will do with corporations and vertical markets. But that is good, because thats good. You may say corporate spending is down. Well yeah it is, but not for ways to cut down on other expenses.

Also, about the carrier thing. This is tricky, to do well with consumers you need variety of carriers, yes, this is very true. But honestly, what does it matter if there are only 2 or 3 carriers in the US? I've talked with people from holland, london, and france, they tell me with all the choices they have, service is still not cheap and rarely have any differences between each other. What does it matter what choice of service you have if all of them offer the same exact thing?

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Stuffing feathers up your ass does not make you a chicken.

To the guy who mentioned global connection, GPS does this automatically as far as I know. There are just roaming charges. Also on expansion, yeah, I know, no expansion, that is a biotch. But that doesn't mean there won't be expansion in the future. The pre-SD palms didn't have any expansion capabilities at first, but then they had a ton of addons for it. Wouldn't be suprised is someone actually makes addons for it. Memory really isn't an issue since it has 16. I mean 16megs of ram is a hell of a lot for a palmos device. I have 8 in mine and only use 5, and I have tons of programs. The size complaint is really just your personal view, so I can't argue with you about that :)
What I can argue about is the battery life. 2.5 hrs talk time is actually pretty normal. Nokias generally have between 2.5 and 4 hours talk time, and handspring stated that they will make it so you can turn off the phone part since it needs to be off when on a plane. Damn I sure am posting a lot on this site. Note to self: do more work and watch more tv. Btw, I tottaly agree on the $599 price, total BS if you ask me, but its for corporations and early adapters. Expect the price to drop a lot. Who knows, one day could be free with activation.

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Stuffing feathers up your ass does not make you a chicken.

Yeah, I know the Pocket PC is cool. But so what? Did you look at the sales right now?

If the Treo is selling for $350 without a contract, that will be a big hit.

Have you forget that you actually have to pay for the price of Treo?

If you told me both the Treo and the m125 are free, I will definitely take the Treo.

Isn't that basic? Price/performance? Many of you neglect the MSRP of Treos being set too high. It will only be an eye-catching product (just like Pocket PC.) and never cash in on sales.

The problem is that if you already have a cell-phone and a different carrier rather than what Handspring offers, you have the following options:

1) terminate the current contract right now (if there is no penalty because you may have a contract) and lost your current phone number (<-) and buy a new Treo and subscribe to two of the carriers Treo offered in U.S., whether their service is acceptable or not

2) buy a new Treo at a cost of $599 if you do not want to terminate the current contract

Everyone is mislead here. The phone is $599 without a contract! $399 with an at-least two-year subscribtion!

its okay. Sorry for taking it hard on you, I just found it a little personal. Not to worry though, I still love palminfocenter.com!
cya later,
PDANature - http://pdan.has.it

"So Handspring, knowing this, has smartly decided to shift gears and start pushing the whole communications thing. Give me my email, instant messaging, internet connectivity (for up-to-date info, not typical web surfing), AND a phone all in one small device, and that's something I can sell."

Actually that's not smartly, people has been talking about this for a long time, the only way to put internet access on PDA is to just put the phone in the PDA or vice versa. handspring's not the first to the market. Nearly all japanese Cell phone companies has been making phones like that for more than a year already. It got Color screen and not running Palm OS, but what do normal Cellphone users care about the OS as long as they could send mesage, receive message/mail/info. ~~...

"Let Sony battle it out with Microsoft. Handspring is going to sidestep them both, and do just fine."

Nono, Sony will battle out with Microsoft for sure. But Handspring will have to battle out with Sony/Ericsson (allience) and Nokia, With a combined Cell phone market share of like 90% world wide :) Good luck Handspring.