Treo Became the Overall Handspring Product Line

The first Treo was a black-and-white version that was designated the Treo 180. It had a sleek design and was much smaller and lighter than the Visor Phone, Handsprings initial experiment with combining a mobile phone and an organizer. There was nothing quite like it on the market at the time. The Treo 180 effectively integrated a mobile phone, a Palm OS organizer, and wireless data applications in one compact communicator. The Treo 180 came in two versions, one with a keyboard and the other with Graffiti handwriting recognition.

One of the lessons we can learn from the development of the Treo is the importance of situational awareness. You cannot rely strictly on one type of data, such as focus group results or survey data. In making important decisions, it is important to compare input from one source with other input and with your own judgment.

There is a story that is often told in some segments of the marketing community that illustrates that what people say in focus groups and what they do are not always the same. Focus group respondents were asked if they preferred black or yellow items. The majority of the respondents in these groups concluded that the yellow items were much better than the plain boring black ones, indicating that yellow was the color that was most wanted. As the respondents were leaving at the end of the focus group, however, they were given the opportunity to take either a black or a yellow item home with them. Almost all of the respondents took a black item. This same phenomenon occurred with the Treo 180.

Focus groups were conducted in Europe to determine whether the new mobile communicator should have a keyboard or simply a screen with the Graffiti feature, which enables the user to write right on the screen. Many of the European respondents indicated that they had to have the Graffiti version because they were used to using this feature on their current organizers. Handspring concluded that it would have to launch the new product in both versions. As it turned out, when the product was launched, most Europeans bought the keyboard version. Handsprings interpretation of the focus groups was incorrect. The lesson it learned was that you cannot always rely on the comments made in focus groups.

The Treo line today has four different versions, all with a keyboard. Handsprings experience with the Treo 180 proved to the company that a separate Graffiti version was unnecessary. The black-and-white Treo 180 is still available. The Treo 270 is a full-color GSM communicator that enables the user to see text and graphics in vivid color. The Treo 300 is a color version designed specifically for the Sprint PCS network. Finally, there is a Treo 90, which has the same kind of design as the other versions but is purely an organizer. As of this writing, the overall Handspring product line is completely Treo. The only Visor products available from Handspring today are refurbished units.