Is Foleo Palm's folly?

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One way Palm and its carrier partners could create interest in the Foleo would be by bundling a Treo, a Foleo, some storage cards and an unlimited data plan, Bhavnani said. At around $799 or $899, that might attract some customers who have been sitting on the sidelines of the smart-phone scene, and that's an awful lot of people.

The real money, however, comes from the corporate users. Palm fought uphill for many years trying to get the Treo devices inside of corporate IT departments, finally agreeing to run Windows Mobile on the Treo to stimulate interest.

It's far from clear why corporations would want to give their mobile workers a Foleo, given that it would require the few vital corporate applications that could even be stored on a Foleo to be rewritten for Linux and that the device doesn't work with GoodLink or BlackBerry, Bhavnani said.

Hawkins did not reveal many details about Foleo's specifications. Representatives for Intel, Advanced Micro Devices and mobile processor powerhouse ARM were unable to immediately confirm whether Palm was using one of their products.

The product uses flash memory, but it's not clear how much will be dedicated to system memory versus storage. A Palm representative said specifications would be released this summer closer to when the product would be available.

After the success of the Treo, Palm has been searching for a new hit as it fends off rumors that it might be sold to a larger vendor or a private equity firm. Given that, it might have made more sense for the company to come up with a new design for the Treo, or software that lets Treos work more closely with existing laptops, rather than striking out on an uncertain path, Kort said.

Palm's faithful--who have stuck by the company through years of languishing development of the Palm OS--appeared underwhelmed at the announcement of Foleo, according to comments on the PalmInfoCenter blog.

"This reminds me a bit of the first wave of WinCE based laptops in the late '90s that touted instant on and fast access to applications. Or it reminds me, you know, of laptops," wrote poster "Nybble" on PalmInfocenter. Negative sentiment outnumbered positive thoughts by a wide margin on the blog.

[mexnerd]

Foleo is a great initial idea

I love the instant-on aspect. Most (95%) of my computing needs are email and web browsing. Many of the tools I use for work are now web-based. I think the Foleo concept, if it can be expanded upon, will prove very exciting. Given that it offers WiFi, you might have one in the kithchen to look up recipes (spill-proof keyboard being a necessity). You can have one next to your TV remote for looking up information that you saw on TV very quickly. In general, having instant-on and -off access and long battery life will have you going online much more often (much to my wife's chagrin).

[dsloves]

Great idea ... but

1) It's gotta include OpenOffice; and
2) It's gotta include a CF slot to allow for storage handling.

[Renegade Knight]

Agreed:

It's a great initial idea. It doesn't give Laptop users a place to turn too though. It doesn't give a forward path for Palm users.

The second generation will need to be stronger and explore a lot of uncharted ground if this (and Palm) are going to survive.

Potential? Yes. What's that potential? Time will tell.

[expatincebu]

You can type on an iPhone

and surf the web and do email and make your calls. Looks to me like the iPhone will be the big hit.

[regulator1956]

Slow Hit

"Looks to me like the iPhone will be the big hit."

Without 3G, the iPhone will be the next slow hit.

[ScottMo]

Jack

You can't do jack on an iphone.

Its not out yet. Please wait and see what its like before telling us how great it is.

[thriftyT]

Close, but no cigar.

Niche product. Even if the Foleo gains some success and sales, it
will be outclassed by subnotebooks of similar size AND price within
a year.

[mexnerd]

Windows laptops aren't instant-on

My laptop takes more than a minute to boot and receive a wifi signal...and that's with a relatively fast CPU!! As with most technology, the Foleo will probably drop in price. Remember the first Treos were about $500-600 and now sell for $200-300.

[Maccess]

Awesome!

UltraMobile PCs don't need Windows Vista, nor do they need to bring a fully equipped computer that's good for only two hours.

I want one of these, and so should everyone who writes letters, memos, e-mails and surfs the web.

What's more, it runs Linux, so it'll have tons of software within weeks of its released.

It uses little power, so it's great for extended use, or even for Bittorrent, Limewire, and other P2P uses.

It's the perfect complement to every full-featured desktop or laptop, which can be left at home or in the office most of the time.

[jones_8099]

No thank you...

Its sounds ok I guess. But in my opinion if your going to have to
carry something that is almost the same weight and size as a full
laptop then why not get a full laptop? I have no use for a device
thats only function is to surf the web and do email. But thats just
me. I do like the "instant on" and the fact that it all flash based
memory. However, I would gladly wait for a boot to have a full
featured OS.

[Maccess]

Foleo is a full fledged Linux OS laptop with flash based storage.

In case you've missed that. That's what it is.

It's marketed as an ultralightweight companion, but in reality it's a Linux computer that will run lots of Linux software. It has USB expansion, it has bluetooth and Wi-Fi, it has a useable keyboard.

OpenSource being what it is, I'd expect to see hundreds of Linux pots within the first months of introduction.

[brokenpooter]

no blackberry/video support..then who's it for??

the device is aimed at business users, but can't support the platform most business users utilize, blackberry. how does that make sense??
and if palm's intention was to have this product creep into consumer's hands, if it can't do the fun things, like video, that consumers demand it won't ever make it to consumer's hands.

the product seems to either be ill-conceived or pre-maturely introduced. maybe when blackberry intros its new application that allows windows mobile 6 users to access the blackberry-sphere, and palm has a treo that runs windows mobile 6, then we may have something that could interest corporate road warriors.

[bjwhaw]

Oh how we forget!

Sure this "first edition" of the Foleo seems well, lackluster. But, think of the possibilities. We have laptops, pdas, smart phones, etc., but the Nokia N800 tablet seems to be doing OK for itself. Equally limited, but by other ways. No integrated keyboard, does have an OSD keyboard. This could be really great with some fine tuning, to use standalone even. Like watching TV and surfing the web. Or catching up on some email. Sure a cheap laptop cost as much, and is more functional, but they get awfully hot sitting on the lap. The potential is there. It needs some tweaking. Think of it as a web pad. One thing I would suggest, Allow the screen to swivel into a tablet.

[reidme314]

Wrap it up, I'll take it

No earth shattering technology here, so the propeller-heads are pissed. Just a well thought out product that some people (including me) will find very useful.

[Errowen]

The device is a brilliant

I have already purchased a Bluetooth keyboard for my smartphone, because although I can thumb emails, editing them effectively on the phone is a nightmare. And I can't view pdf's or Office documents properly, or edit the latter on the phone. It appears that the Foleo will address those two essentials seamlessly, so I can leave my laptop behind. (I do want it slimmed down to under 1 lb.)

[Jackson123r]

goo

Many people are debating on how great the iPhone will really be? the fact of the matter is that Apple has the most loyal customer base in its industry. It will sell regardless. It?s iPhone time

I love hearing about the iPhone. I?ve seen pictures. It?s pretty slick. Looks really nice.

http://www.iphone-video-converter.org

[GoTerps76]

Foleo

One of the very important things that was missed and what makes the Foleo great is that you don't have to find an Internet connection or wi-fi hot spot to send and receive email and the like.