Palm Pulls the Plug on Absurd Foleo Product
Tue Sep 4, 2007 6:20PM EDT
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In what must certainly be a move to avoid embarrassing both himself and his company, Palm CEO Ed Colligan has killed off the Foleo, the "smartphone companion" announced this summer which met with ambivalence at best, ridicule at worst.
In case you missed it, the Foleo was going to be a kind of mini laptop designed for use with a smartphone (most likely a Treo). With a full keyboard, a 10-inch screen, and a Bluetooth connection, the idea was that you could have a bigger, more full-featured interface to your Treo instead of having to thumb-type your way through emails and Office files.
There's a germ of a good idea here (who likes typing on smartphone, after all?), but there was so much to be annoyed by that it's clear why the Foleo found few early fans and zero hype. Why carry a 2 1/2-pound non-laptop when you can have a 4-pound (or even a 3-pound) real one? Why spend $500 on a glorified external keyboard for your Treo? And, of course, the kicker: Don't most people who carry Treos do so so they don't have to carry a device like the Foleo?
Well, today Palm finally wised up, and good for them! You can sift through the official announcement if you'd like, but there's not much there in the way of a mea culpa except for a lot of corporatese about needing "world-class products" that are "central to our core focus." Palm is writing off a mere $10 million due to the shutdown of the Foleo project. If you ask me, they're getting off easy.
Foleo, we hardly knew ye. If you'd like to remember the gadget that never was, give Ben Patterson's old pros and cons analysis a spin... though I recommend you start with the cons.
LINK: Official Palm blog
Comments on Palm Pulls the Plug on Absurd Foleo Product
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2 Posted by somebodys_here on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:32PM EDT Report Abuse
$50-$75 would be applicable. all it ever was going to be was a companion for those who are slightly impaired visually or lacked the dexterity to use the Treo. who, if these cases were true, would even buy a Treo to begin with? oh well, I guess it could have had a niche market, but thats no what Palm is about, now is it?
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3 Posted by rashaad_1nyc on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:29PM EDT Report Abuse
LOLz, hair on your palms. Ohh yeah, the Palm. I'm glad they pulled the Foleo. With that price tag, it wouldn't have sold regardless and even the name's ugly. It sounds like trees or sumthing :))
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4 Posted by commorancy on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:28PM EDT Report Abuse
The Foleo could all be done in software. With a remote control interface to the Treo, it would be reasonably simple to create a 'Foleo' application that runs on Windows or a Mac that would let you do exactly what Foleo does without needing to lug around extra equipment. The hardware idea wouldn't have been a bad idea 10 years ago when notebooks were still at a premium. But, with virtualization products at nearly every turn and notebook prices dropping, it would have been a smarter idea today to do the Foleo entirely in software. The idea that the Foleo should be done with a 'fake' notebook should have been shot down and, instead, it should have been replaced by the idea to do it entirely in software.
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5 Posted by radiotest2002 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:26PM EDT Report Abuse
I like the form-factor of the Foleo...I'd like to see a lower-cost internet appliance in this design, with more functions and freedom from having to use it with a cellphone...
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6 Posted by fernando_bravo@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:59PM EDT Report Abuse
LOOLs G))I)
1 Posted by rogueist on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:49PM EDT Report Abuse
Great, someone woke up at the wheel before it crashed! I thought the idea was great for developers, but the price was far too high - $50 would have sold.