The Handspring Visor *is* great!
About eight years ago, I had a problem with my visor - it stopped responding to touch screen events. I went PDA shopping, but after several weeks, I had not found any that were able to do the things I had been doing on the visor. (One of those things was 'bring it into a no-camera facility', which basically eliminated about 95% of the products right there.)
For some of that time, I was using a palm m130. I can't remember what the exact issues with that PDA were, but they were frustrating. Finally, when I was returning the palm, the sales clerk said he'd just gotten in three refurbished visors. At $100 each, I felt it was a steal, so I bought all three.
I'm now on number 3. I am somewhat concerned with what I'll do after this one stops working, but there is *some* hope - I'm no longer working in a 'no-camera facility'.
Personally, I think if Palm ran into any issues with licensing PalmOS, it was that the company to whom they licensed it made a superior product. My vague recollection of the palm I had for a while suggests that the issue was, Palm was focused on 'innovative', whereas Handspring was focused on 'reliable and usable.' I *like* innovative, but I'll pick 'usable' over 'innovative but not usable' most of the time.