They state "The Treo communicator offers 25% more talk time and 3 times as much standby time as the Samsung SPH-I300."
Now ... they say the Treo is 2.5 talk/60 standby, and the I300 is 2 talk/18 standby. But SprintPCS says 4 talk/100 standby -- which is much more believeable based on my experience.
Web Graphics: View HTML web pages—text and graphics—with Blazer 2.0 and the large screen on the Treo communicator. Plus, you can view virtually any web site in its entirety, not just those sites that are optimized for mobile access. The Samsung SPH-I300 can only display text on its screen.
I'll go ahead and chime in, too. The keyboard in the works for the i300 (see http://www.sphi300.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=576) is very sim to the one on the treo (and appears it will only cost $39.95), so one can argue that the i300 does BOTH graffiti and keyboard for a relatively cheap upgrade price. But, I don't expect handspring will tell you that, either!
So, what are the samsung marketers doing anyway? I hardly ever see much selling on the i300....
I think that maybe I figured it out ... could Handspring be quoting the I300's ANALOG standby time, versus the Treo's DIGITAL standby time? Talk about deceptive....
I used to have a lot of respect for them and their products. Now, I'm not so certain.
Someone should forward this link to some of the news outlets -- might make an e-story about Handspring's deceptive advertising practices.
Cliff, I hate to point out a mistake in your post regarding Samsung's marketing, but clearly, millions upon millions of dollars and the very best minds in advertising today went into the awe-inspiring "blue dude" series of Samsung commercials for the i300. The company has spared no expense or trouble to trumpet the technical and aesthetic superiority of their outstanding, segment-leading product.
Yeah right. What a joke.
Anyway, it's hard to believe Handspring's misleading statements. I think it's OK though, because I suspect the Treo will "un-sell" itself once people hold that flat little brick to their head. It's a full 1/2" wider than the i300, which makes a huge difference with a phone. I've come to expect a certain form factor, and for me the Treo simply exceeds the appropriate footprint.
We're already seeing the i300 fall in price, which should stimulate sales. If you look at the price of a color Palm/Handspring PDA, and add the cost of a decent phone... at $349 or even $399 the i300 is a good deal.
One thing the Treo does have on us is GPRS capability. This provides basically "always on" access to e-mail and such. Too bad the network won't be built out for another few months...
I've only seen one commercial for the I300 and it didn't feature a "blue guy." I don't think they're advertising as much as they could. Not too many people know about the I300 even still.
word of mouth works great, except unless the competition outsells you with superior marketing... as strong as word of mouth sells, there's nothing like a good shotgun blast of marketing... I guess I'd be even more humble and settle for more than a simple pea shooter's worth...
if samsung screws this up and loses market share, we all suffer since accessories/ add-ons/ sw wouldn't be developed for it and it would likely be discontinued. Worse yet, i'd be stuck with something else out there, none of which currently surpass the i300.
btw, I found out about the i300 by accident - not even looking looking for a phone/ palm, I glanced at it in CompUSA when I stopped off for a cat5 cable... had I not previously owned the orig q-phone, I would not have known how good it was, esp since there wasn't SQUAT for any lit/ specs avail for me to read...!...
Handspring's BS will trick people into buying it and then they will find out the truth. That will result in a backlash which will make them look like idiots.
Or maybe nobody will even notice. We'll just have to wait and see.
__________________
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
Maybe they are talking about reality on the i-300, where talk time is actually about 2 hours, and standby is actually about 50 hours.
If that is the case, the two devices might be roughly equal.
This bugged me on principle, so I e-mailed Handspring from their site. Herewith you'll find their response, followed by my original e-mail.
Q
<paste>
Q,
While there certainly is a marketing 'spin' to our Samsung comparison, from the comments of several customers it has become clear that there are some flat out inaccuracies in the comparison. We have not received similar comments about our other cross-company product comparisons.
While we do try to have a sampling of products on hand for us to draw direct comparisons, I suspect that in the case of the Samsung product we were not able to directly examine the product and had to make some educated guesses.
Your comments have been forwarded to the web masters so that they can work with Marketing to get the bugs out of the comparison.
Thanks for contacting Handspring.
James Dempsey
Handspring
-----Original Message-----
Subject: Web Site Feedback
1. In the Comparison Summary, it is stated, "The Samsung SPH-I300 can only display text on its screen."
In fact, the I300 is capable of displaying graphics, and any web site. Sprint PCS makes Blazer 2.0 available free of charge to all subscribers using an I300.
2. In the Comparison Summary, it is stated, "The Samsung SPH-I300 does not allow the use of a headset."
The I300 has a standard headset jack built in, and therefore does allow the use of a headset.
3. In the Compare Details table, Phone Functions section, it is stated that the I300 does not have vibration mode. In fact, it does.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. I respect Handspring, and especially Hawkins and Dubinsky (something I'm sure you hear all the time). While I am an SPH-I300 owner, on principle I support a competitive market. I would just like to see some more truth in marketing.
Originally posted by Queue While there certainly is a marketing 'spin' to our Samsung comparison, from the comments of several customers it has become clear that there are some flat out inaccuracies in the comparison. We have not received similar comments about our other cross-company product comparisons.
While we do try to have a sampling of products on hand for us to draw direct comparisons, I suspect that in the case of the Samsung product we were not able to directly examine the product and had to make some educated guesses.
Hahaha. Of course, do they state anywhere on their "comparison" page that "Some of these values are educated guesses"?? No. They state them as absolute fact.
Quote:
Your comments have been forwarded to the web masters so that they can work with Marketing to get the bugs out of the comparison.
I think more of us should contact Handspring so that this matter does get resolved.
Quote:
COMMENTS: I wanted to inform you of some misleading information on the following page:
You forgot to mention the battery life comparisons. If they're going to compare the Treo's DIGITAL talk time versus the I300 ANALOG talk time, they should at least make a note of that for their readers.
Good job, Q! I, too, like Handspring and respect what they've done in the industry - and am disappointed to see such blatant lying on their web site. It is beneath them.
Originally posted by dtoombs
You forgot to mention the battery life comparisons.
Yes, I'd considered bringing up the battery issue. It's so difficult to pin down absolute numbers on battery life, though; I thought we'd all be better served if I stuck to clear and unambiguous points.
this should be put on the oreilly factor!!!!! how are you gonna say "we had to take an educated guess??" hell, just go to the samsung website or sprints site ro even go to bb or circuit city to see the blame phone for theirself!!! them pencil necks dont get out much do they????
Originally posted by Queue Yes, I'd considered bringing up the battery issue. It's so difficult to pin down absolute numbers on battery life, though; I thought we'd all be better served if I stuck to clear and unambiguous points.
A good strategy, no doubt. But, now that you have their ear - you may want to toss the battery stats in there as well. I mean come on ... an "educated guess" of 18 hours, when in reality it's 5x as much?? You can see the official battery stats either by going to the SprintPCS.com site and clicking on the details of the phone, or doing to the SamsungUSA.com site, going to the page for the I300, and then clicking on the "Get User Manual" link.
Sheesh ... they make it sound like it was impossible to find this kind of information. Methinks they didn't try all that hard to see if they were wrong. The old "better to ask for forgiveness than permission" approach.
Other things that could use fixing is the list of palm apps that are included - palm desktop, ms outlook conduit, and the golf game (whatever it's called). And, the i300 also has vibration mode....
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