Lexus Dealerships Deploy Palm Handhelds

Posted By: Ryan Saturday, November 9, 2002 11:07:33 AM

Palm, Inc. and Lexus announced that Lexus sales teams are now equipped with Palm m500 handhelds. Lexus has purchased 3,000 Palm m500 handhelds for use in dealerships nationwide. While customers test-drive vehicles, look under the hood or kick the tires, Lexus salespeople can access the most up-to-date and detailed vehicle information on the fly.

The Palm handheld coupled with Lexus Vehicle software, a custom application created by Single Tap, allows Lexus salespeople to go paperless while maintaining the benchmark level of customer satisfaction for which the luxury car dealer is known. Salespeople equipped with a pocket-sized Palm handheld and the custom application can provide customers with interior and exterior options, photos, pricing plans and more.

"We think Palm technology is very innovative and that it will add to the Lexus dealership and purchase experience," said Mike Wells, Lexus vice president of marketing. "Equipping our sales associates with such an efficient resource tool will definitely benefit our already time-starved customers."

Serving Lexus' target customer audience requires the company to enlist creative, tech-savvy and innovative sales and marketing approaches. In addition to salespeople using Palm handhelds, potential customers with Palm Powered handhelds can download car data directly from the Lexus Web site and easily receive, store and share pictures and details of their dream cars. Using Palm handhelds accentuates the luxury, quality and customer satisfaction equated with the Lexus brand.

I am sorry for the lack of updates this week. A large tree fell on my apartment builing and I was without power for the past 2 days and my PC got toasted. No one was hurt; nor was any data lost ;) I just rebuilt a new machine and am just getting back up to speed now. -Ryan

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Bummer about the tree!

Pepper @ 11/9/2002 12:23:46 PM #
I'm sorry to hear about the tree, but it's good to know you're ok!!

About the Lexuses, its totally awesome to see a car company utilizing PDAs like this. The opportunity to expand your bussiness utilizing modern technology is very impressive, and it is actually relatively shocking that so many companies out there are NOT using PDAs

-Pepper

I love my Palm . . . do you?

RE: Bummer about the tree!
masitti @ 11/9/2002 12:59:01 PM #
That is awesome! How are they getting this information? Wirelessly?

Sorry to hear about your comp... What did you end up building/buying? :p

------------------------
Mario Masitti
O/T Mod
I Love Tennis :)

RE: Bummer about the tree!
funngunn2 @ 11/9/2002 2:11:32 PM #
Sorry about the tree thing man!

This is great news, because I plan on going to the Lexus dealership at the end of the month for my new toy, 2003 RX300! I'll be able to bust out my Prism and get options and tech specs, in the Palm of my hand!

>-----------><-----------<
"Live Long, Visor Prism!"

And I'm still waiting for LauncherX!

If practice makes perfect, and there is no such thing as perfect, then why practice?

RE: Bummer about the tree!
carguy @ 11/9/2002 2:42:43 PM #
It wasn't a PALM tree by any chance? jk Really, sorry about the tree, and I'm glad you weren't hurt.

RE: Bummer about the tree!
Bosco @ 11/9/2002 7:33:29 PM #
That's cool, funngunn!

Ryan, I'm sorry to hear about the accident and I hope everyone in your complex gets back on their feet ASAP.

Anyway, that's a really good way to make use of Palm handhelds, and I'm surprised that more companies and corporations haven't used this as an advantage for them. Palm handhelds do some cools stuff, don't they?

RE: Bummer about the tree!
abosco @ 11/9/2002 7:49:07 PM #
Hey just in case you're wondering, that was my post above, I was just having some trouble logging in.

RE: Bummer about the tree!
ozzpalm @ 11/10/2002 12:06:25 AM #
Sorry about the terrible accident. What kind of 'puter did you build?

sorry about the lose

Xaositek @ 11/9/2002 12:59:51 PM #
sorry to hear about your lose ryan. The Palm community was worried about you. Palminfocenter is the backbone of my day and many others. But furthermore its awesome to hear Lexus using the Palm. But one thing I am surpised of is they didnt use the Tungsten T to get up to the minute updates via Bluetooth w/ internet access.

--------------------------------
Jason
appleJAC MUG Webmaster
Mid-MO PUG Officer
No-Rulz, Inc. Webmaster
RE: sorry about the lose
Pepper @ 11/9/2002 1:05:23 PM #
I'm sure one of the biggest reasons they used the m500 rather than the m550 (aka T|T) is money. When you're talking 3,000 pdas every dollar you save adds up!! The amount of $$ they saved is quite a bit, and it'd even be cheaper for them to buy m500 w/ bluetooth cards than to get the m550

-Pepper

I love my Palm . . . do you?

RE: sorry about the lose
Beavis @ 11/9/2002 2:44:24 PM #
We're Talking Lexus here, Pepper, Not Yugo :)

RE: sorry about the lose
masitti @ 11/9/2002 3:11:10 PM #
3,000 m500's (@ $200 each) are $600,000.

3,000 T|T's are 1.5 million dollars. That is a LOT to spend just on the handhelds alone. Not to mention of course the custom software they had to have designed.



------------------------
Mario Masitti
O/T Mod
I Love Tennis :)

RE: sorry about the lose
Fzara2000 @ 11/9/2002 4:40:20 PM #
So why didnt Lexus use the M1XX's instead of the M500's?
You're saving a lot of money by using the M1XX's with around the same features.

"Now thats just PRIME!"
RE: sorry about the lose
Fernando @ 11/9/2002 5:32:18 PM #
they probably didn't wanna lose out on the style of the m500 over the m1xx series. Plus size factory is probably also a big plus because they want their employies to use it, not have it just sitting on their desk.
RE: sorry about the lose
cyn @ 11/9/2002 7:39:52 PM #
If they shelled out that extra dough to get the TT's - they'd also have to shell out for a bluetooth enabled cellphone for all their reps, and then REALLY shell out monthly when the GPRS bills arrived.

Besides, I don't think that the prices are changing every minute - syncing at the beginning of the week or morning should certainly cover up to date pricing.

Lexus Conduit

Gekko @ 11/9/2002 1:06:30 PM #
I downloaded the Lexus PDA showroom and then deleted the app. Now in my "Custom" Conduit section of Hot Sync - I see there is a Lexus Conduit which I can't remove. I see Lexus.dll in the Palm Folder. Can I delete this file to remove the Lexus Conduit whithout damage? Thanks.

p.s. Here is the PDA showroom link:

http://www.lexus.com/showroom/model/pda/index.html



RE: Lexus Conduit
cyruski @ 11/9/2002 2:16:21 PM #
you can. try renaming the file to a different extension instead of deleting it, you may be able to go back in case anything goes wrong.

RE: Lexus Conduit
Gekko @ 11/9/2002 2:30:44 PM #
cyruski! - Thanks. I deleted it and all is right in the world.

RE: Lexus Conduit
Beavis @ 11/9/2002 4:14:07 PM #
LOL Good One!!!

Showing Customers Photos on the m500?

I.M Anonymous @ 11/9/2002 1:24:07 PM #
What's the point? If they wanted to show photos, they really should've gotten m5x5s.

RE: Showing Customers Photos on the m500?
cyn @ 11/9/2002 1:50:08 PM #
the point is not for photos - the point is to be sitting in a car at the dealership and be able to provide a comprehensive list of the options available for that model, as well as accurate pricing

RE: Showing Customers Photos on the m500?
Beavis @ 11/9/2002 3:12:00 PM #
The real point is to have Palm PDA's associated with Lexus in peoples minds. Palm is the "Lexus" of PDA's.

Too bad for Palm that Sony is going to associate themselves with Rolls Royce. The announcement is forthcoming.



RE: Showing Customers Photos on the m500?
big_raji @ 11/9/2002 4:12:07 PM #
Damn Rolls Royce fanboy trolls always have to come on here and bash Lexus.

---
George W. Bush at his best!
http://raj.phangureh.com/foolme.html
RE: Showing Customers Photos on the m500?
helf @ 11/9/2002 10:38:21 PM #
lol

RE: Showing Customers Photos on the m500?
M3wThr33 @ 11/9/2002 10:38:46 PM #
Sony is more of a fun, less serious, throw-away device, like a VW Beetle.

I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation. We're in space.
RE: Showing Customers Photos on the m500?
Palmcicle @ 11/10/2002 12:27:25 AM #
Gosh, how many Sonyls did Rolls Royce buy?...12?...one for each of their dealers. Someone plunking down 200 grand for a RR couldn't give a rats about the salesmans Sony! The Lexus/Palm deal is much more visible to consumers.
RE: Showing Customers Photos on the m500?
Fly-By-Night @ 11/11/2002 5:45:46 AM #
At least Rolls Royce don't consider gold badges a sign of class. Here's hoping they don't gold plate their m500s.

Worse news yet, Alan Partridge (http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/partridge/) is set to drive a Lexus in his new series. Lets see if he can do to Lexus what Gareth Cheeseman did for the Ford Probe!

FBN

Is This a Good Thing?

Haber @ 11/9/2002 6:04:17 PM #
I'm not saying they are or aren't knowledgable, being years away from being able to afford a Lexus, but aren't salesmen supposed to be intimately familiar with their product? I find it hard to understand why specifications and packages shouldn't be something they've memorized forwards and backwards.

RE: Is This a Good Thing?
Lowrez @ 11/9/2002 8:37:13 PM #
Good sales people know how to sell the product. What they don't know off the top of their heads is the cost of stereo Y in car Q. Nor do they know the exact supplier or employee discount for every item on the floor. Ask questions like that and they want to walk you from the car to a little desk and pull out the Big Book of Numbers. This seems like a great use of a PDA.

RE: Is This a Good Thing?
abosco @ 11/10/2002 12:50:17 AM #
Exactly. If you were to apply that to every single use for a PDA, then we would need to have all of our friends' phone numbers memorized, have all of our quick written notes and memos memorized, and play all of our games with a stick and some dirt. We all use PDA's for different things, and this seems like a valid use of them.

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