Hard Times for Handspring

Well, I'd have never guessed that Handspring would fall on hard times, but they are in some tough straights at the moment. To get some background on their situation, have a look at this excellent article Handspring holding on until Treo gets a grip by John Fortt.

I and my wife both owned and used Handspring Visor Deluxes for several years and really loved them. Family and friends still use Visors and love them too. Our Visors were nicely designed and tough and the Springboard Backup module was a real lifesaver at times. Handspring seems to really have a good feel for the consumer -- smart marketing, very nice packaging, clean website, solid products, the works.

But tough times have arrived for Handspring. They've had to buy out a multi-million dollar lease on a manufacturing building they've built but can't use and have put all their eggs into the PDA/Phone "communicator" basket with the Treo. The Treo is a great device with excellent software and hardware integration. I just fear the Treo was maybe a bit too far ahead of its time.

I do hope the market for communicators will catch up with Handspring before they run out of cash. It would be a pity if they had to close up shop with such great people and products. Hang in there Handspring!