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Palm Withdraws Linux-Powered Foleo PC
M Saunders writes "Not long after we enjoyed playing with the device at LinuxWorld 2007, Palm has announced that it is shelving the Foleo handheld PC, before it was due to ship, so that the company can focus on a 'next-generation platform.' Palm hasn't ruled out a 'Foleo II' at some point, but for those of us looking forward to dinky Linux-powered laptops it's a bit of a disappointment. Still, with the Asus Eee PC nearby — and at a very low price point — perhaps it was a sensible move by Palm."
... it's called "saving face".
...
Unless I'm very much mistaken, there will never be a Foleo II. The press release is merely a cover for the fact that the product concept was DOA. Nobody was interested in the Foleo apart from a few geeks who wanted a cheap sub-notebook that ran linux. For business users there just wasn't a market for that thing and there most likely never will be.
Even die-hard Palm fans hated it, renaming it the Flopeo or Fooleo. Palm seriously screwed up with this one, but at least they had the courage to axe it before making complete fooleos of themselves
Resources behind the Treo line? The Treo 600 was a brilliant product in its day, but all they've done in the 7 years or so since is basically bugfix and do new plastic moldings. And come out with a line of me-too Windows Mobile devices.
If that's all the resources they have they are screwed. The whole point of dumping the Folio is to focus on their new OS.
The whole problem is that this company was nearly destroyed by splitting off the OS division into PalmSource. The hardware division is worthless without a great OS to back it up.
The iPhone sucks in a zillion ways, but it's got a great OS running on a limited piece of hardware. And it can't even do shit out of the box, you have to hack it to even make it moderately useful. Still demolishing the Treo in the market.
That's pathetic. Palm needs a new OS. Palm OS is looking so long in the tooth it's ridiculous.
Palm can't (or doesn't feel that it can) compete with Nokia et al in churning out low-end phones. Palm can only stay in business by making higher-end smartphones.
Their biggest problem is that their product cycle is way too long. The hardware and software revs between models seem small enough, but they're taking more than a year to push them out. That can't go on much longer.
Palm should return to what they knew how to do well once upon a time. Build insanely great personal organizers. It isn't the 1990's anymore and it doesn't HAVE to be a cellphone, we have bluetooth now. Bundling a PDA with a cellphone sounds like a great idea, but it isn't. They operate on two totally different replacement cycles, cellphones (in the US) are tied to the carrier, requiring you to buy from the subset of products your carrier decides to carry. Cell phones have the WRONG FORM FACTOR. Jeff, go back to your blocks of wood and realize the problem and maybe a solution.
Once you make that jump, something like the Folio is at least possible to think about. A big PDA for the DayRunner set that links via Bluetooth or WiFi and offers a stable platform for the road warrier who doesn't need to worry about problems with Windows and can live with a mostly browser based existence except for the vital PDA data and vertical apps kept locally.
And personally I wouldn't trade month long battery runtimes for 'multimedia clips.' A big Folio sized gadget should do it because it needs a Li-Ion battery and a daily charge anyway, but offer at least one handheld that ISN'T an iPod wannabee. These days you could sell a totally kick ass "Palm" for under a hundred dollars. There is a whole untapped market there just waiting.
Democrat delenda est
Who cares. I'm loving my Linux-based Nokia N800.
I said "small" not "low end". I'd kill for a clamshell or slider phone that runs Palm applications.
As for their product cycle, it hardly matters how long it is when nothing really new comes at the end of it.
I'll agree that I don't get the trend towards making a fcsking iPod (errm, music player) out of every bit of electronics, but I do appreciate the phone/PDA hybrid and appreciate the fact I don't need two devices.
I also appreciate the massive overlap -- a PDA is orders of magnitudes more useful if it can communicate with the internet (email, sync, etc) and a phone is orders of magnitude more useful if it organizes phone numbers and contact information. Bluetooth linking doesn't cut it and its not worth the inevitable bullshoot and reliability problems that it would come with it. I love my BT headset and mouse, but the rest of it has been more hassle than carrying an 8" USB cable in my laptop bag.
I do like the sub-sub-notebook ("paperback"?) form factor, but its not truly useful without good 3G or better networking, and phone tethering while useful doesn't cut it.
What we really need is a CF-card sized "phone module" we can move between various devices (phone, notebook, PDA, etc) that gives them network access without creating a hardware dependency (eg, the phone handset/carrier tie-in) AND a much-better-than-bluetooth wireless standard that provides more robust and higher speed connectivity.
Out of the box, yes it was. To quote the spiel:
"Foleo mobile companions work with Palm's Treo(TM) smartphones (Palm OS(R) and Windows Mobile(R) versions). However, Palm believes that most smartphones based on Windows Mobile should work with little or no modification. Smartphones based on operating systems from Research in Motion, Apple, and Symbian likely can be supported with a modest software effort."
That "little modification" and "modest software effort" would be beyond the average businessman. And, of course, their phones would have to support BlueTooth and not have BlueTooth crippled by their provider before even trying to get it to work... So in reality, we're back to a potential buyer group of Treo users, plus a handful of diehards and rich people who can afford to say "aw, shucks, doesn't work, in the basement you go".
What's flabbergasting is that it took so long before Palm killed off Fooleo. Almost all user groups predicted it would either be killed, or drag Palm down with it, and I have seen absolutely no support for Hawking's view that this was the best invention ever to come out of Palm. It was so blindingly obvious to everyone that this was a solution looking for a problem, and a bad one at that. When you can get full laptops for around $350, why would you want to spend $600 (less $100 initial mail in rebate, for those who qualified) for an ultra-slow laptop-looking device that can only do a small fraction of the things a laptop can do? And if small is your thing, the Foleo wasn't particularly small either -- bigger footprint than the new (and much cheaper) Asus models, but with a smaller screen and incredibly enough even less memory and slower CPU.
No, this was doomed from the start, and in this case, people are in their full right to tell Palm "we told you so". Because we did -- and not just a few of us either.
And, as Engadget said, "Small is sexy". Remember that, Palm. And remember how well the Palm V/Vx sold. It was small and sexy, and we luurved it! The replacements were clunkier and/or less sexy, and we didn't go for those. Simplicity and beauty in a small form factor is what you sold, and then forgot all about. The buyers didn't -- YOU did. There may still be time to do something, but the sand is running out as fast as the pennies on your budget, and you don't have much time left.
Regards,
--
*Art
So was the computer itself. The altair was a useless piece of hardware, with no software to run it when it first came out.
Way, way, cheaper than taking it all the way to market.
Still, I think the recipe was almost right. I have an (unfortunately broken) Psion 7. Very handy machine in its day: instant on, reasonably fast. Light... Give it a freshen up with a faster CPU, Wifi,... and you'd have a vry useful device.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
I use a PDA too, but one with WiFi for use where WiFi is available, and BlueTooth for when it isn't (Clie UX-50). And unlike the Foleo, I can read and reply to my e-mails directly through WiFi or Bluetooth or USB, and not just sync it with a cell phone Inbox. Multiple e-mail accounts is no problems either, and using IMAP, I can keep gigabytes of emails available on the server, and not be limited to the phone's memory for the Inbox, like with the Foleo.
That it fits in my shirt pocket is a big reason why I carry my PDA with me at all times.
My laptop is nice for when I've planned to go somewhere -- it's not something I always carry with me. And a Foleo couldn't have been that either, simply because it's too big and heavy.
What the Foleo really was, was a keyboard and screen in a laptop form factor that would allow you to access a small subset of what your phone and PDA already could do, on a bigger screen. I don't think anyone at Palm seriously thought this could become a seller, but were simply spit-shining Jeff Hawkins' shoes as good yes-men do, since he had the delusion that it was his greatest invention ever. I'm just surprised that Jeff Hawkins didn't realise the truth himself, or that CEO Ed Colligan didn't blow on the house of cards earlier.
Some safeguards should be put in place so this can not happen again. Firing Hawkins (or more likely retiring him with a bonus and lots of thanks) isn't unlikely now, but won't resolve anything. The culture within Palm must be rotten, and those without guts to say "Sorry, Jeff, but that's plain stupid" even after all the fan sites pointed it out are the real people to blame here.
I don't think they'll ever do another non-phone.
Which makes me sad, too. The T|X is okay, but it shouldn't be the best they can do.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
> The big question with the Treo is whether there are enough people who need more than a PDA but less than a full laptop
No, the smartphone IS the new notebook. The notebook is the new desktop. The desktop is the new workstation. The Treo is just way behind the curve because it still doesn't have a Unix OS and Web 2.0 browser or a UI that works on a tiny screen. It was supposed to start being a real computer about 2-3 years ago.
Why buy a Core 2 Duo in a big white box when you can have it in a MacBook for $1100? Very few reasons.
Once you have an iPhone (or similar future competitor with Unix and Web 2.0 and zooming UI) you look at a PC, even a notebook, as a workstation. You use it to run Photoshop, you use it to make stuff, but you don't take it everywhere with you, you don't open it up to do email when you're on the road, you don't open it up to look up something in Google or get a map or refer to some notes. You only get the notebook out to do a real computing session, like an hour or more of real work.
You can find generic crap. But if they're not constrained by patents, you can get third party compatible parts of at least as good quality.
For instance, I personally use laserjet toner "clone" cartridges, half the price of HP's, and the quality is no different, I've printed tens of thousands of pages. Inkjets are similar, read up on comp.periphs.printers for lots of pointers to good ink refills.
As for battery chargers, I can buy an excellent quality brand name charger, for a standard battery, much much cheaper than the ones that fit the unique phone socket. I fail to believe that the funny plug justifies the extra cost.