The Palm Foleo was not on anyone's radar. People were actually angry because of being so disappointed that the new device is not a handheld. I was one of those people.
Jeff Hawkins invented the Palm Pilot. He invented the Treo. The guy is a visionary. The Foleo was code-named "the Hawk". Everyone was cautiously hoping for an innovative handheld device that would blow them away.
The Hawk turns out to be a small, low-powered Linux-based notebook. Palm loyalists were shocked and discouraged. They fear that the Foleo will be DOA and be the last nail in Palm's coffin.
But, what does the Foleo have going for it? Did Jeff Hawkins completely miss the mark this time?
Maybe. Maybe not. The Palm Foleo is light, has long battery life and is cheap. It is a handheld-like notebook. A light, literally and figuratively, notebook with instant on, instant app switching.
As light and simple as it is, it can still run the Opera web-browser and give you access to all the information and applications on the web. You get internet access through either its built-in wi-fi or through a dead-simple Bluetooth connection to your smartphone (Palm says they plan to make it compatible with feature phones as well in time).
We know that people do not carry their laptops around all the time. If they do, they either are really large humans, have a little cart that they drag along as they go through their lives or they can afford a tiny Sony Vaio or something. Emphasis on the word afford.
Here we have a device for $500 that gives you that middle device I have been wanting. The small-enough device that is bigger than a handheld to give you a lot more screen real estate and comfortable typing.
What Palm is hoping is that the Foleo will have enough plusses to attract a large following once people get used to the idea. I think Palm has a decent shot for a number of reasons:
It is cheap and light, the other ultraportable notebooks cost 3-5x more. That is major. Normal people who do not have money coming out of their ears can afford to buy one.
It is simple. Palm is keeping simplicity and they think computers are too complicated. They think that when you go mobile, you can get by with the basics plus the internet.
It is instant on. Instant on changes the game and that has been witnessed in the PDA, smartphone world.
It is mobile-centric. They think we in the US are living in a PC-centric world and the world (including eventually the US bringing up the rear) is going mobile-centric. Lots of the rest of the world gets by with a tiny screen on a handheld as their interface to their personal computer (cell phone).
I believe that Palm is showing off the Foleo a bit early to see if they can ride on the iPhone's coat tails. The problem with that is that, the iPhone looks to be the ultimate sexy device and people immediately get it. A ton of iPod owners would want it simply because it is a much cooler iPod. The foleo may be buried in all the iPhone hype. The comparison between the Foleo and iPhone will not be pretty.
Secondly, the Palm OS that runs on Treos and other Palms is this ancient thing that has been out for years. They missed a few software upgrade cycles and are eager to show off something based on Linux since Palm-fans are tired of waiting for their new Linux-based OS.
We'll see whether the Foleo can survive long enough to find its audience. Will Palm survive that long?