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Over 40,000 communicators sold, 93,000 shipped
Handspring announced today that 93,000 Treo Communicators (Treo 180 and Treo 270) have shipped sine the introduction of the Treo line. A little less than half of those units, about 40,000, have so far been sold to end customers.
In the fourth quarter alone, 46,000 units shipped and 27,000 were sold. The numbers of Treos sold doubled from last quarter, in which Handspring estimated that only 13,000 out of 47,000 shipped were sold.
The main reason for the large shipping versus sale discrepancy is that the Treo 270 is currently in transition to the retail channel.
Handspring is still in the red, with a fourth quarter net loss at $15.4 million. Revenu for the same timeframe was at $49.0 million, compared with $61.0 million last year.
For fiscal 2002, revenue was $240.7 million, compared to $370.9 million last year. Net loss for fiscal 2002 was $91.6 million compared to $126.0 million in fiscal 2001.
The company reported gross margins of 24.5% during the fourth quarter as compared to gross margins of 9.2% in the prior quarter.
"I am pleased that our Treo product family is contributing to revenue and increased gross margins," said Handspring CEO Donna Dubinsky. "We are executing well on product development, carrier business development and expense control."
Handspring plans on becoming profitiable in the December quarter, and claims to have enough cash to last until profitability.
Treo 300 news
Handspring confirmed that the Sprint PCS Treo 300 WILL ship at the launch of Sprint's 3G network. Sources tell us the network is expected to go live mid August, corresponding with Sprint's claim "to launch 3G1X services nationwide later this summer."
Palm OS 5
As expected, there were no comments on future devices. Donna stated that "in terms of Palm OS 5, it is an impressive platform. We are excited and are taking a good look at it."
Highlights
Highlights of the fourth quarter include:
- Launched and shipped Treo 90, a sleek, color organizer with integrated keyboard, to the retail distribution channel
- Launched Treo 270, a full-color wireless communicator
- Announced regional availability of Treo 90 and Treo 270 in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia
- Announced commercial availability of Treo Mail, a new wireless email service for Treo communicators
- Launched Treo 180 and Treo 270 communicators in Australia and Taiwan
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