Handspring, the first company to sell a Palm-based handheld under a brand name other than Palm, announced it’s first online retailer as Amazon.com. For the next 60 days, Amazon.com will be the exclusive online retailer for Handspring’s Visor line, joining brick-and-mortar retailers Best Buy, CompUSA and Staples who launched the product in April. (Prior to that, the Visor was sold only through the Handspring website).
Prices for the Visor at Amazon.com are expected to be the same as other stores or $179 for the basic 2MB model and $249 for the 8MB Visor Deluxe, which comes in five colors. The Visor is notable in that it has an expansion slot, allowing easy connection to add-on modules for modems, memory and eventually GPS and other devices.
Amazon.com said that handhelds are among its top selling consumer electronics items. Carl Gish, general manager of Amazon’s consumer electronics store — launched last July — said the Palm V was the company’s number-one selling product in dollar sales over Christmas. Amazon.com also carries the full Palm line, the Psion Revo, as well as handheld products from Casio, Hewlett-Packard and Franklin Electronics.
