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From TNPC issue #4.17...

A Visor Phone Markdown

by Al Gordon
August 23, 2001

Handspring has a deal for you: its Visor Phone cellular module is now available for $50 with service activation -- some $200 below its original price. The unit is another in the range of Springboard add-ons. It incorporates an antenna and earpiece, drawing on the Visor's built in Microphone and utilizing the Visor's screen as a dialpad. For those who find the concept of talking into their PDA a little too geekish (and for those driving a car), there is a handsfree headset. Handspring has marked down almost everything in their Visor product line.
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/417/tr.cgi?visor

In addition to working as a cell phone, Visor Phone also serves as a wireless modem for the handheld. The module now ships with Handsping's Wireless Internet Access Suite software CD. The bundle includes Handspring's Blazer web browser, short message service, and email apps.

The markdown may reflect what some industry analysts have seen as sluggish sales for the Visor Phone. This is in part because it uses the GSM cellular standard, the leading protocol worldwide but not in the United States where TDMA and CDMA prevail. Accordingly, you are limited in your choice of cellular networks. Here in Massachusetts, for example, the only available carrier was VoiceStream. In testing, though, through the Massachusetts Turnpike corridor and into Connecticut, I didn't see any major disparity in coverage as compared with AT&T Wireless.

Another consideration probably is that Sprint PCS is about to offer an AirPrime Springboard module that will operate on the carrier's CDMA network. The AirPrime unit uses a design and interface similar to Visor Phone's.

Calls on the Visor Phone were clear, the integration with the Visor's address book was excellent, and the Internet features were well done. It did seem a little odd to be using a PDA as a phone, but the concept is sound. It was no stretch of the imagination to envision such a design as being commonplace once the electronics evolve so that the size shrinks somewhat.

You can reach Al Gordon at:
mailto:al@TheNakedPC.com

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