Handspring Admits Non-Color Edge a Mistake
Ed Colligan, Handspring's chief operating officer, admitted that leaving color out of the Visor Edge was a mistake, according to an article published this weekend by The San Francisco Chronicle. The Edge was intended to be Handspring's answer to the m500. However, sales of the Edge have been extremely disappointing for the company. In May, it accounted for less than 1% of the PDA market, according to NPD Intelect. The company has not yet said whether it plans to make a color version of the Edge.
The only forthcoming product the company will say anything about is the one in development with wireless capabilities and they are still keeping their cards pretty close to their chests. They will say that it is going to have built-in, always-on access to the Internet without requiring a Springboard module.
However, they won't say when it will be available. In a recent interview with The Street, CEO Donna Dubinsky about a release date for the device. She said, "Look, everybody sees us regularly introduce new products; you shouldn't be surprised. But, you know, we are certainly not announcing our products today. You'll see them when they are ready." She said last Spring that the wireless Visor would be available by June 2002.
While sales of its VisorPhone have also been disappointing, Handspring has learned a lot from it that will go into the wireless Visor. Ms. Dubinsky said, "From a software and UI [user interface] perspective, we've learned how to use a display as the UI for a phone -- what works well and what doesn't work well, what improvements are needed. We've learned a lot from a technical perspective about RF [radio frequency radiation] issues and interference issues, coverage issues, microphone and speaker issues. The list goes on and on. And on the business side, we learned a lot from carriers on how they want to do business: How they bill customers, how they offer a service and how we work with them. "
Palm is also in the process of developing a handheld with always-on wireless access, intended to replace the aging VIIx.
Related Articles:
- San Francisco Chronicle: Handheld and Hopeful
- The Street: The TSC Streetside Chat: Handspring CEO Donna Dubinsky
- PIC: Visor Edge: Release Day
- PIC: Handspring Planning Wireless Visor
- PIC: Handspring Forum
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RE: no color edge
However, the users who post on message boards, download files, etc. account for a very small percentage of handheld users (fewer than 5% according to the last numbers I saw). Palm may be, and probably is, doing focus groups. Large portions of their audience are never going to install a 3rd party application - for those folks, color is not an issue.
The problem is releasing one unit with color and one without, then having them be only 10-15% different in price. How big a deal is $50 when you're already paying $400? (Palm m500 vs. m505 being the example here.) Who isn't going to spring for the color in that case? Now, if the cost difference was $150 instead of $50, you might see much higher sells of the B&W unit....
Focus groups and consumer research
He interviewed a marketer who briefly described the consumer research done by Coke prior to the introduction of New Coke. According to the marketer, the focus groups said that, yes, they would like a new flavor of Coke, and, yes, they liked the new flavor that they tasted.
We know how that went. The moral of the story is that sometimes, even good research goes bad.
RE: no color edge
RE: no color edge
RE: no color edge
RE: no color edge
What rock we you under? That [color 5 series Palm] rumor mill was crankin for months. Much to the dismay of much of the Palm economy as we all sat on our dollars and bought little else until it did.
RE: market research
However, I believe Palm does alot of market research. For example I remember a quote from a Palm rep stating that they went with the Palm V form factor for the 500 series because their focus groups indicated that people liked it the best out of the designs they tested. I myself have gone to about a dozen paid focus groups from anything to Intel advertisements, software to printers.
Regarding doing research on these PDA websites, I just saw yesterday a post in a PPC forum from a M$ rep doing some research on application capatibility with storage cards.
I do think there is a place for doing research at websites, but like a poster stated, the people on these boards are certainly not "representative" of the "population" (a key criteria for market research).
RE: no color edge
Color vs. non
What about ugly?!
RE: What about ugly?!
RE: What about ugly?!
RE: Design
However, what I didn't like was the way the stylus fit into the unit. It took me almost a minute to even figure out how to put it back in the Edge.
Price?
RE: Price?
RE: Price?
RE: Price?
RE: Price?
About the always-on wireless gadgets Palm and Handspring are planning to release. Again, bad timing. Even RIM, the industry leader for such gadgets is suffering: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-6774744.html?tag=nbs
And such devices probably be displaced by 2.5G and 3G phones in a few year. As for now, maybe Handspring and Palm should release a COMMON standard for their wireless device or it will fragmentize the Palm wireless market and only confuse the end users and discourage users specially the corporate sectors who favor standardization.
RE: Price?
who cares about $100 up or down....
The worst features of the EDGE (I have one) are:
1) that the pins are not compatible with the Visor/Prism etc and there is not a base adaptor to use things like my Stowaway keyboard.
2) the kludge out of form add on.
The best feature is the style and form of the Edge. It fits in any pocket, it is light and feels solidly built. The stylus is easy to get.
I ordered by edge on the upgrad offer for $300...It is faster than a deluxe and except for the loss of a keyboard is easily available.
I ordered mine without looking at the Palm color 505. Palm is promissing pin compatibility in the future and has 2 add on slots (and there is a base adaptor available that allows use of older Palm add ons. My guess is that in the long run this is the way to go and I will probably buy a Palm or Sony clie'[much as I hate their proprietory memory] before I invest $100 in another keyboard for my Edge. Oh well......
Plagiary
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News Editor
Palm Infocenter
RE: Plagiary
RE: Plagiary
RE: Plagiary
"Dear X,
It has come to my attention that an article you recently posted on your web site was written by me. Since this article appeared without my permission, without attribution, and without compensation, it violates my copyright.
I would prefer not to be forced to take legal action. Please remove the article from your web site immediately. If you want, you may excerpt a small portion and link to Palminfocenter as the source of the article, but you may not reproduce the article in its entirety.
Sincerely,
Ed."
If that doesn't work, you can follow up with some more nasty stuff. Since you HAVE to enforce your copyright in order to keep it, it is important that when you find someone is violating it, that you bring it to their attention and make them aware that once they have published an article written by you without your permission, they have violated your copyright and are IMMEDIATELY liable to you for damages.
That said, it is often best to be at least a little understanding, since no one knows where some of these kinds of submissions come from. Give 'em a chance to take it down before threatening more immediate action.
RE: Plagiary
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News Editor
Palm Infocenter
RE: Plagiary
RE: Plagiary
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Ryan
Editor in Chief
webmaster@palminfocenter.com
RE: Plagiary
RE: Plagiary
RE: Plagiary
RE: Plagiary
I know that it sucks that the article appeared in two different places as unique news, when in fact it was an original news item from PalmInfoCenter, but it appears to have been a simple mistake. Hal corrected the issue by linking to the correct source, and Beng took it down all together.
Both these sites are run by top notch guys and no harm was intended, I'm sure. So, why don't we cut them a little slack and be thankfull that they responded so quickly to fix it, once you brought it to their attention.
...can't we all just get along? :-P
RE: Plagiary
Or should it be:
All Your Palm Infocenter Articles Are Belong To Us?
RE: Plagiary
RE: Plagiary
> in order to keep it
IANAL but I think you're mixing up trademarks with copyrights. Trademarks have to be enforced or they you lose legal standing. Copyrights don't.
Dear Palm Partners: Listen to your customers!
-Michael Dell
Design had more to do with it
- Backpack expansion module. Springport slots are nice, but making us have a completely seperate backpack module to accomodate it was in hindsight a terrible decision. Having the backpack on the Edge makes it incredibly bulky, and prevents you from having a face-cover. I realize there probably wasn't any way to fit a Springport on the unit and still make it with the smaller size (at that time anyway), but it's still a sore selling point.
- The stylus. Big, bluky, hard to remove and in the way all the time. There's just nothing good about it.
- The timing. If Edge had been released 6 months before it was, it might have been more of a hit. As it is, waiting for the m50x, and perhaps even the Sony and Handera models, was just too tempting for many people.
RE: Design had more to do with it
Slim is just not that big of a deal. I don;t think the Visors are that big and I like having the memory all contained. I am using 64 mb for medical files and would not like to have to leave a backpack or what ever attached to make it more awkward. If the new color version (whenever it comes out) is the same way I will buy a prism on closeout.
SF Chron Article
RE: SF Chron Article
- Handspring sacrificed a color screen and its signature expansion slot to make the Edge thin and light -- while competitors such as Palm and Sony charged more for color. That was a development mistake, acknowledged Ed Colligan, Handspring's chief operating officer.
Seems clear enough to me.
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News Editor
Palm Infocenter
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no color edge