Increased rivalry and weaker consumer demand in the hand-held computer market has sparked a retail war with makers cutting prices to compete. Palm clone maker Handspring cut prices for its older Visors three weeks ago, including a HK$900 reduction for the Visor Edge, a product launched in March. Palm Computing also has brought down prices for its Palm series. In Hong Kong, Palm's entry-level hand-held, the m105, is selling at Fortress for HK$950, making it cheaper than many competing devices, including those from Taiwanese makers Leo and First International Computer, which are typically priced lower than devices from United States makers, Analysts forecast stellar growth in demand for hand-held computers last year and this year. Hand-held makers responded by boosting production, only to find demand would not meet expectations, leaving many grappling with a glut of older models. Lower pricing is not limited to older devices. Handspring's two latest Visor hand-held computers - launched in Hong Kong yesterday - are available at HK$1,680 and HK$2,450. Palm Computing also has lowered prices for its m500 and colour m505 hand-helds to match competing systems from Handspring. It also lowered the price for the Palm VII to HK$750. The mid-range Palm Vx is selling at HK$1,999. The cheapest Visor - the eight-megabyte Visor Deluxe - is priced at HK$1,380 compared with HK$3,200 when the product was launched. One of the two new Visors - the Visor Neo - targets the entry-level market. At just HK$300 more than the Visor Deluxe, it sports a faster processor, but has 4 MB less memory. Handspring lost US$67 million in its financial fourth quarter and is struggling to maintain market share. The company is hoping to spur Visor sales by offering popular Springboard modules such as the VisorPhone free in the US, with the purchase of any Visor hand-held. The new Visor Pro has 16 MB of memory, double that of most Palm-based hand-held computers. Most other Palm OS devices, including the Clie series developed by Sony and Palm Computing, come with 4 MB to 8 MB of memory, although they can be expanded using removable memory cards. The Visor Pro has the latest Motorola DragonBall VZ processor which gives it better performance over older Visors. The monochrome Visor Pro is a rechargeable hand-held. The Visor Pro also features a Springboard slot.
