Hawkins to Speak at Special PUG Meeting at PalmSource
Jeff Hawkins, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Product Officer of Handspring, Inc., and inventor of the original PalmPilot products, will speak at a special worldwide Palm User Group meeting, to be held at PalmSource. This meeting with Mr. Hawkins is a chance for Palm User Group members from around the world to have an opportunity for an informal discussion with the visionary of handheld computing. The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, February 07, 2002 at 6:45PM PST.
The meeting is expected to last approximately 75 minutes. All persons attending this meeting must have a ticket, which can be obtained at the InterPUG booth at PalmSource (Exhibit Station #109), beginning 12:00pm on Wednesday February 6th.
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RE: Tap-tap-tap
As for the future of the Visor itself... that's a whole other story. Can you say, "Treo"?
RE: Tap-tap-tap
RE: Tap-tap-tap
The mobile market is going to be an interesting space to watch, but I don't see Handspring as a long term player.
RE: Tap-tap-tap
Do I see envy ?
RE: Tap-tap-tap
The Treo is cool, but it can't carry a company, especially in today's society. It's a nice idea, but with all the new cell phones coming out that can do everything the Treo can do, how the heck can HS expect to survive? Do they really think anyone will want to surf the web on the miniscule screen they have? This is their first step into this type of market, who knows what kind of reception the phone will get as well. There just isn't enough out there to draw people towards a device like the Treo. People, especially in America, aren't ready for it.
RE: Tap-tap-tap
I have owned 8 Springboards so far and have been amazed at what a Visor can do for me. Now that my Tero has just arrived (this evening) I do think I am going to keep both for different occassions. Including the Tero this is the 4th product I brought from Handspring. I did have a TRGpro and a Vx and all models before that. But no one can beat the service of Handspring's sole distributor in my location - they gauranteed a 30 minutes fix (or a replacement) for whatever problem one may have with a Handspring device. When you rely your Palm OS device on every aspect of your life, this service quality is what make me adhere to Handspring for a long time to come.
Francis Lo
Hong Kong
RE: Tap-tap-tap
There are a ton of Springboards, and more are still being made. That does not define a flop.
The Visor Pro is actually a really capable piece of work, and I see the Neo series in many stores and in people's hands. That does not define a flop.
So, please make yourself useful, and troll the PPC sites. At least then you'd be doing a worthy cause. I'm still ticked off at the "Can Your Palm Do That?" ads. Yes, the Visor can, you turkey.
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James Sorenson
RE: Tap-tap-tap
The only springboards being released are not by developers who expect for them to sell well. They're just trying to cut their losses of development $. The Springboard market has already shrunk. The attraction of these addons was that you could use them in the next generation of Visor PDAs. But there will be no next generation. It doesn't appear there will even be upgrades of the Edge, Pro, and Neo (which are the only ones still in production.)
So OS 3.52 in black and white is all we get, while Palm, Sony and Handera will be on to OS5 as soon as the summer. Face it: if the Treo doesn't appeal to you, there will be no Visors PDAs. The production rampdown on Visor PDAs starts in a month.
The most amazing feat in the handheld arena was Jeff and Donna convincing developers three years ago to risk their own capital and create over 50 Springboards. Then they burned down the community in a few sentences. Don't expect small peripheral developers to ever trust anyone like that again. Handspring burned that bridge on their way out of town. Office Depot is already liquidating their Visors and Springboards.
In the chessgame of the PDA market, Handspring has their flanks unprotected and nothing backing them up. They can't make money on PDAs they're not producing or enhancing anymore and the Treo isn't even on sale in the US yet. Handspring is banking on the one product, which is pretty much a PalmPhone with an older OS. And PalmPhones haven't been a huge success, since the phone service is so expensive.
Jeff Hawkins may make the Treo a hit. I wish him luck. While I'd love to send wireless email, I don't need a phone, especially a phone that doesn't even have a memory and backup slot. The other PDA producers have all gone to plug in media and the company that revolutionized it isn't even putting a slot in the Treo. Go figure.
Handpsring said they'll produce PDA's until the market is no longer viable. They're already selling PDAs at closeout prices, so the market doesn't appear to viable (profitable) right now.
I'm one of the few who seems to be happy with my Edge. But since there's no plan for OS upgrades, memory upgrades, future springboards, or even repair, where can I look for my next PDA, but elsewhere?
An Interesting Note
As luck would have it, Mr. Hawkins is not speaking at any of the sessions. So, if you want to hear Jeff, the only way to do it is at the Worldwide PUG meeting.
Visors
Springboard kicks butt. It had real, better-than-serial I/O peripherals back when CF, SD/MMC, and Sony Memory Stick were just glorified playstation memory cards. If Handspring kills it then someone else should pick it up and continue it (I'm hoping HandEra). If ONLY because you can now use almost every PDA storage standard with it by doing a Springboard swap (THANKS MEMPLUG!!!). In fact, that's another thing, Springboard modules are quite durable, if large, and harder to lose.
Truthfully, the only things really WRONG with the visors are the lack of flash ROM storage, and no standalone Springboard reader for desktops. No flash ROM really does annoy me, because, like many, I like tinkering around with my PDA, and moving apps that I "just can't live without" into ROM for safe keeping is a luxury I appreciate greatly. There's also the fact that you can't upgrade the OS and included apps WITHOUT USING RAM OR MEMORY CARD SPACE. Supposedly, PalmOS 4.x is a little bit better and will be maintained and supported for a little while longer. A standalone Springboard reader for PC's and Macs, like how you can get CF, MS, and SD/MMC readers. This would be a great help because you could access data stored on your modules (imagine hotsyncing your data/backup modules!) and would allow you do such nifty thingies like use your GPS, or your BlueTooth from your desktop, so you wouldn't have to buy additional suff.
There are my two only beefs with the Visor product line, and they are not MAJOR ones either. Of course, I am super annoyed with Handspring for threatening to kill my Visors and no Springboard on the Treo (A flash ROM upgraded GPRS color Treo with PalmOS 4.x and a BlueTooth SpringBoard...droooooool). And I suppose that Springboard might have to be radically changed for the transition to ARM, unless OS 5's emulation is REALLY good. Still, the Visors were always damn good PDAs with a few annnoyances, and for the price, a Visor NEO is a great first PDA.
Any reports on what was said?
Brian Lane
---
Lead Programmer, Shine Micro http://www.shinemicr.com
RE: Any reports on what was said?
[ No Subject ]
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Tap-tap-tap
The "visionary of handheld computing" is going to need a visionary in tap-dancing to help him undo the PR nightmare HS created around the future of the Visor. I can't wait to hear this.
Office Depot has already liquidated thier Visor stock. Who's next?