The Objective Was to Create a New Category of Products

Handsprings objective was to create a device that would be the only thing a user would have to carry. This one device would be an excellent mobile phone, a great organizer, and a very effective Internet device. There were other combined products on the market, but none of them did everything well. There were mobile phones with large screens that could handle data, but they were not also organizers. The Blackberry 6720 was an Internet device that had phone capability, but it was not a great phone. Many users found that they also had to carry a separate mobile phone.

The objective was that when customers bought this new device, they would get rid of their present organizer and get rid of their present mobile phone. There would simply be no reason for them to have another phone or organizer, or an Internet device such as the Blackberry. By doing customer surveys after the product was introduced, Handspring found that it had achieved this objective. Over 90 percent of the people who bought a Treo stopped using one or more of their other communication devices.