Originally posted at http://www.ayg.com/wireless/Article.po?type=Article_Archives&page=985145

When I first signed on with the AYG tribe eighteen months ago, I had an idea for a column that made everyone in the staff meeting giggle. It was called, "Where's My Flying Car?" and detailed my desire for the dream mobile device.

"I want all my capabilities on one device," I said, getting caught up in the rapture of the moment. "I want my phone, PIM and data all on one device, I want the interface to be elegant, and I want to be able to use it anywhere in the world. It's the year 2000, and I want my flying car."

Not three weeks later, IBM debuts a new ad campaign with Avery Brooks complaining about the lack of flying cars. Though he wasn't talking about mobile devices, I was still mad that Big Blue had beaten me to the punch line.

I'm thinking about the flying car concept today while playing around with my new Handspring VisorPhone.

I fell in love with the product when I took it for a demo test spin back in February. There's no software to load, since it's all hard-coded in the Springboard module. It uses your existing address book info to build your speed dial lists as well as any numbers stored on your SIM card, makes SMS messages a snap, and is so easy to use that my girlfriend's mother (the basis for all of my real world comparisons) had no problem figuring it out. Couple that with Handspring's Blazer hybrid browser and the module's data capabilities, and bingo! There's my flying car.

So, if it's so darned cool (and it is), why can't Handspring get anyone to buy the thing?

Last week, Handspring issued another program to get the VisorPhone on the backs of more Visors. Buy any Visor and a year's worth of GSM phone service, get a VisorPhone for free. This follows the deal where you could get a VisorPhone for $50 with a year's worth of GSM service from your local GSM carrier.

However, if you already had a Visor and GSM service, the price tag is an unforgiving $300. Worth it? Only to gadget hounds like yours truly.

Handspring spokesman Brian Jaquet said last week, "It's no secret that expectations have not met with Visor phone sales." Could it be that the expectations were too farfetched for a device that pricey?

In a market where you can get a Nokia GSM handset for $50, getting Joe Average to pony up for a total expenditure of $450 (module plus baseline Visor) or more takes some 'splainin. The only way you can do that is through physical contact. Handspring claims that retailers such as Best Buy and Office Max carry the phone module, but I drove around Dallas for a week looking for a retailer that carried one, to no avail.

Also, VoiceStream looked at me as if I grew a second head when I asked their retail staff about the module. To get any information about the deal, you had to call an 800 number, ordering the module sight unseen.

I knuckled under the pressure and bought the module outright, knowing full well that once I did, I would see the module's price drop through the floor. It hasn't happened yet, but I hold out hope.

This is a product that needs to be successful, and it will be a true shame if Handspring doesn't find a way to push it along. After all, it would be a pity to see my flying car relegated to the same shelf as the Tucker Torpedo.