Handspring Makes New Sales and Distribution Plans

Posted By: Ed Tuesday, July 16, 2002 9:50:42 AM

Handspring has announced sales, marketing and distribution programs designed to increase its sales to business customers. It has greatly increased the size of its enterprise sales team by hiring an outside company. Handspring has also increased the distribution of its Treo smartphones through CDW-G, which sells computer products to government agencies, and Global Wireless Data, which specializes in distributing wireless products to resellers and other companies.

Handspring has made an agreement with MarketLink, a company that provides outsource sales and marketing. The new sales reps from MarketLink will work with distributors, resellers, enterprise solutions partners and carrier sales teams from Cingular and Sprint to sell the Treo.

Handspring has expanded distribution with CDW-G, the government sales arm of CDW Computer Centers, and Global Wireless Data (GWD), one of the largest stocking distributors of wireless data communication products and services. As a National Master Agent for major U.S. wireless operators, Handspring expects GWD to be a key partner in getting Treo communicators to customers on the Sprint and VoiceStream networks.

Many analysts believe that enterprise sales are critical for handheld companies as this will be the largest area of growth over the next several years.

According to Gartner Group, in 2001, Palm OS licensees accounted for more than 50% of handhelds sold to large companies and government organizations worldwide, compared to 32% for Pocket PC licensees, 1% for Symbian, and 16% for other operating systems.

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Spin control

Scott R @ 7/16/2002 12:33:33 PM #
You left out the fact that Handspring is announcing their earnings this Friday and most analysts believe that they'll be losing 12 cents a share. This story sounds like some spin control to send out a positive message about their future right before they announce to the public how awful their earnings are.

Scott

RE: Spin control
I.M. Anonymous @ 7/16/2002 12:40:52 PM #
A 12 cent per share loss won't have any real effect on Handspring because it is a fairly typical result for the company. Last quarter it lost 14 cents. The same quarter a year ago it lost 29 cents. New companies are rarely profitable within 5 years and Handspring no exception, especially during a recession.
RE: Spin control
I.M. Anonymous @ 7/16/2002 12:45:30 PM #
I don't think Handsping will last 5 yrs at current burn rate. Plus their Treo product isn't exactly hot item either.
RE: Spin control
I.M. Anonymous @ 7/16/2002 1:22:31 PM #
Actually, Handspring has the highest marketshare in the enterprise.
is stupid written all over their forehead?
drw @ 7/16/2002 5:20:38 PM #
Well they are distributing phones to the WRONG CHANNELS. I don't want to see a $650 Treo Smartphone at Fry's Electronics, CDW, etc. I want to see a $449 Treo Smartphone at Verizon Wireless or SprintPCS.

David in Pflugerville, TX
RE: Spin control
I.M. Anonymous @ 7/16/2002 7:58:33 PM #
It is nothing short of a major mistake that they allowed Sprint to have this phone exclusively (for how long, we don't know).

Nobody uses Sprint. Sprint coverage sucks.

It goes without saying that businesses don't go with Sprint. They go with Verizon, and sometimes Nextel.

More importantly, KIDS don't like Sprint.....it's all adults that are attracted to Sprint. No KIDS means NO DEMAND for keyboard based instant messengers....NO DEMAND equals no penetration....Handspring go bye-bye.

Stupid Stupid Stupid.

RE: Spin control
Sholey @ 7/16/2002 9:13:30 PM #
Do I take that to meen you like Sprint?

RE: Spin control
I.M. Anonymous @ 7/16/2002 10:47:38 PM #
You really have to love all of the closest analysts and their take on every move that Handspring makes. By all accounts, postings on PIC run about 99% negative where Handspring is concerned. Why can't you people simply wait to see how things play out in the end.

My god, they make pda's not artificial hearts and in my opinion they are developing some very innovative products. I don't own one and never have. However, the Treo communicators in enteprise makes perfect sense. Actually, the Treo 90 in enterprise also makes sense. I can remeber when my company introduced Palm's to our field people. Many had a difficult time figuring out graffiti and some still can't use it. I love the keyboard approach which is odd becasue I also love graffiti. Had I not just upgraded my Sony I would have taken the Treo for a spin.

In the end, despite what I have read here, I suspect Handspring will be a very successful company. They will never be as big as Palm and Sony, but they will continue to innovate and make great products.

RE: Spin control
drw @ 7/17/2002 12:41:27 AM #
disagree, I love the design of the treo smartphones. It's just that their inexperience in this arena is showing. Here's a list of some problems users are reporting:

1. the screen goes blank
2. the headset hangs up callers
3. signal goes to no signal when other phones have signal.
4. battery drains suddenly
5. earpiece doesn't broadcast (hardware defect)
6. replacement phones are sometimes defective refurbs

And if one complains, one gets told "well, maybe you're not cut out to be an 'early adopter'". Huh, you spend $499 on something you're supposed to accept that it will not work?


David in Pflugerville, TX

RE: Spin control
I.M. Anonymous @ 7/17/2002 4:09:27 AM #
I agree, I think Handspring is a sinking ship. I don't know where the "Handspring has the highest marketshare in the business" comes from.

I work at Best Buy, and have seen a continuous flow of Visors returned, or replaced because of problems. I see palms flying off the shelves (after the 515 came out, we sold out in a day, and we'd have 10 in stock, and we're a low volume store). I dont' think I've sold a Handspring product in about 5 months. You cannot give away the Treo. We've had them in stock since day 1 and I think we've sold 3 and 1 was returned.

As for the current product lineup, it's pretty pitiful, especially to what else is out there. The Treo 90 at Best Buy now is about 270, while you can pick up a Zaurus (which I really like a lot) for 313$. I think we've sold 1 Treo 90. The screen is horrible, people hate the thumbpad (WHY NO GRAFFITI?), it's unseeable in sunlight, and even in the flourescent lights above our department. There's nothing appealing about it. The m130 is 100x better, and with OS5 coming out soon, why even bring out the Treo 90? Work on something better. No jog dial too, booo.

I'm sorry, but Handspring has turned me off from the getgo, and with their pisspoor performance, I see them going down faster then the Clie 415.

RE: Spin control
I.M. Anonymous @ 7/17/2002 12:27:05 PM #
1) Best Buy has the worst PDA setup known to man. One of the reasons the screen looks horrible is because the screen doesn't arrive calibrated properly. You have to go to Option-Q and move the slider over to the left.

Problem is, you can't do this at Best Buy because their PDAs are stuck in those little metal clamps. You can't even press the Option button, let alone 'Q'.

2) People do NOT hate the thumboard. Get a clue, pal, and go back to your Sony Clie with joystick attachment and wireless Star Wars movies.

treo 270

I.M. Anonymous @ 9/15/2002 9:49:17 AM #
Best WORLD phone/pda device I ever had. I owned a number of Palms and phones; The last unit was a Palm V and tonnes of accessories in order to get email - Motorola top of the line world cell phone. The treo is one serious device that replaces and exceeds all of those (gadgets) in all aspects (including the screen) - one single device. I sold these devices (used) and it almost bought me the Treo. Talk about value. Worth every penny, sorry guys. By the way, it worked everywhere in Europe I went, Italy Switzerland w/o _one_ service interruption.
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