The Palm Foleo: I Just Don't Get It

[Pete Paxton]

The laptop is a very innovative device. To be able to put virtually all the power of a desktop pc into a thin box that runs on a battery, has a full size keyboard, an optical drive that plays and burns, a big hard drive, lots of ram, beautiful screen, and can handle third party apps. It’s a very useful product.

Even the variations of the laptop have been innovative. Take the Tablet PC. As a teacher, I can walk around the classroom moving from student to student, enter grades, and take hand written notes all on a computer without needing to sit down or use a flat surface. The UMPC has taken the power of the laptop (with a full OS) and made it even more mobile. And of course we have pocket pc phones and smartphones which have taken many of the abilities of the computer and placed them in the window (I didn’t want to use the “p” word) of our hands and eliminated the need to carry a separate phone.

Enter in the Palm Foleo, a laptop sort of looking device with a 10 inch screen and full size keyboard. It’s innovativeness? Hmmm, hold on, I’m still thinking, oh I know – nothing!
Now I know what some are thinking. What about the low $500 AR price? My current laptop is a dual core Pentium with a gig of ram, 14.1" screen, 100 gig HD, DVD play/burn and Vista Premium for $549 with a $50 gift card without a rebate. Ok, what about the size of the Foleo? Here's where I really don't get it. It's not small enough to fit in your pocket. It doesn't have a touch screen so you'll have to put it on a flat surface to use the keyboard. I would probably carry it in a case to protect it. Well, if I'm going to have to do all this, why not just take my laptop? Is it really that much more cumbersome?

What about it's functions? Now rather than discuss what the Foleo can do (because it's a pretty short list), I'd rather discuss what it can't do. It can't give me a 14.1 inch screen, it can't give me an optical drive, it doesn't have a full operating system so I can add third party apps, it isn't pocketable, it really isn't any cheaper than a laptop nor is it really any less cumbersome. Ok, so what can the Foleo do? It can give you 10 inches of email, note taking, and internet surfing all in a product you are going to physically use almost in the same way as a laptop.

So it comes down to this: If I'm a business person and I take a trip where I will need to do some light note taking, check some emails, lightly surf the web, and perhaps watch a movie on the plane, I'll just take my Dash smartphone. It's very capable of all these tasks. If I need to do more, I'll throw my laptop in a case, take it and use it the same way I would the Foleo but with 10 times the functions. I just don't see where the Foleo fits in. It's too big to be as mobile as I'd like and not powerful enough to provide all the functions I need. It's not going to replace the laptop or pda phone so is Palm really advocating that we need yet another device? So do you agree or disagree? Feel free to convince me I'm wrong.
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Tmo Dash

[scottb]

I agree with everything you stated. I don't know where that device is intended to fit in.

If I don't need my laptop, I use my Q. If I need more power/size, I take my laptop. I see no need for a "half-laptop" device.
In fact, I see little need for the typical computer user to even get a desktop any more--I haven't used one in years. I guess the real advantage would be the price.
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Motorola Q, WM5 - Verizon Wireless, U.S.A.

[Stinger]

I think it'll be a niche product but it does have some positives, such as instant boot up and decent battery life.
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Business: Mobile MDA Vario II (aka HTC Hermes)
Pleasure: Nokia N95

[Mike Temporale]

My original thought was that this was perfect for an executive. But the OS that Palm picked has really killed the item before it even got out the door. Linux isn't a supported desktop OS in most companies, so getting the IT department to agree and support it will be difficult. Second, Since it's not Windows or a Windows variant (like CE, Mobile, or embedded) it will be difficult to add that custom line of business application to it.

I want to like it - I do. I just can't figure out where it will fit in to the market. I can't help but think that Palm would have been smarter to spend the time and money on coming up with a new mobile device that doesn't build upon the same old Treo from years gone by.
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"I have no special talents, I am only passionately curious" - Albert Einstein
Mike.Temporale.com

[bitbank]

This looks like another useless product that some engineer convinced the company to create. There are plenty of slim laptops that are much more useful and not much more expensive. In the case where my smartphone is too limiting, then I will bring my slim laptop. This product really looks like the 5th wheel. I've even brought my bluetooth keyboard on trips where I thought I would be doing a lot of email on my phone and that is a lot more practical than this foleo device.

It's just another a solution looking for a problem...

L.B.

[nosmohtac]

I want to like this device too!! I think the marketing behind it isn't all that bad other than the OS. If it were to have CE or XP on it it would be great.

I beleive there is a place for this device to fit in the marketplace. MS and other OEM's have been telling us for years that they were going to make a device like this (UMPC) that runs a full OS and will only cost around $500. Show me one UMPC on the market near that pricepoint.

I think many people would love to have a device like this that is instant on. I don't have a problem waiting for my laptop to come out of hibernate, but there are times I'd love it to be instant on. If Palm's claim is true then many people would also love to have a device that is this slim and easy to tote that lasts 5 hours connected to WiFi.

I have a Dell XPS M1210 with a 12.1" screen. With what I added this laptop retails for more than $2600 and most of the time I could get by with what the foleo does. I've seen very few ultra portables for less than $1500. (I know everyone's needs are different, but I don't consider a 14.1" laptop as ultra portable. I carried one around every day for 6 mo before getting a real ultra-portable.)
My XPS extra capacity battery was $149 and claims 7 to 9 hours. I get maybe 3 to 3 1/2 hours surfing while connected to WiFi.

It's far from perfect, but I think they'll sell a bunch of these things. If they aren't very successful, I might try to pick a used one up (for a bargain) for traveling a little lighter, and who knows maybe Palm will get it right on the next model.

[onlydarksets]

[bsoft]

This is an HPC2000. It may be newer, faster, and have a better OS, but that's what it is. Microsoft already did this, and it already failed in the market.

That said, I think that the Foleo could be a success. There are a LOT of people like myself who already have a laptop and/or desktop but want a smaller device.

Here's what the device can offer, hopefully:
- Instant on. Suspend gets you close on a PC, but HPC2000 could resume instantly, and I suspect this will too.
- Long battery life. With no hard drive or power-hungry CPU, we could be looking at 10 hours of battery life. That's something that few laptops can come close to.
- Durability (no hard drive).

Linux is key here. Assuming that the device isn't horribly locked down, Linux means that I can do things like SSH into my remote server and run a VNC session over encrypted SSH. Or I can run a Remote Desktop session to a Windows server. I could install Firefox if I wanted a better browser.

I go to classes most of the day. I need a machine that lets me look up stuff on the Web and lets me take notes. That's it. I have a smartphone (Dash), but it accomplishes neither of those objectives (screen is too small to browse the web easily, keyboard is too small to type up notes). This could. And it could do so with (theoretically) much better battery life than the twice as expensive, twice as heavy notebook I use every day.

[Rocco Augusto]

Pfft, I think I'll spend a little extra bit of extra money and grab a HTC Shift when they come out. The screen might only be 7-8 inches, but it is running Windows Vista and is powerful enough to have the Aero enabled. If I'm not mistaken, it also comes with a 30GB HDD, 1GB RAM and WiFi (maybe Bluetooth as well). Plus, who wouldn't love a UMPC which has built in GSM/GPRS/EDGE and UMTS/HSDPA functionality?!
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Smartphone Thoughts
Contributing Editor

[sven]