That new Palm device is finally out and it’s called the Palm Foleo. Repeat after me. It’s called the Palm Foleo and it’s marketed as a “mobile companion”. Yes.. it’s the next big thing from Palm - so big that it deserves it’s own mobile category according to Palm. I’m not sure that I agree with that but hey - anything to drive sales right?

So what exactly is the Foleo? First Palm calls it the world’s “first smartphoen companion product” which means it’s strictly designed to work in conjunction with mobile devices such as the smartphone. In fact in a web presentation on Palm’s website, Jeff Hawkins mentions that small devices is still the future.. but there are still times when you’ll want a large display and that’s what the Foleo provides. Ok.. I can buy that argument. Thus to summarize, the Foleo is designed to sync with your smartphone - sharing data to and from the smartphone and providing a larger display when you need it. It’s able to connect to the Internet thanks to it’s built in WiFi support or via a Bluetooth connection to your phone. You can surf the web, browse your email, view documents, look at media, and potentially a whole lot more through 3rd party application developers.

So given that premise, let’s look at what the Foleo provides shall we?

  • 10 inch display
  • Full size keyboard
  • Instant on and instant off capability
  • One button access to full screen email
  • Rapid access to various applications (something akin to a Start menu on Windows)
  • Web search and browsing via Bluetooth or WiFi
  • Editors for Word, Excel, and Powerpoint
  • PDF viewer
  • 2.5 lbs
  • Compact design - fits on an airline tray
  • Fast, simple and “intuitive” navigation
  • 5 hour battery life
  • Linux OS for easy application development
  • USB port
  • Video out port
  • Headphone jack
  • SD and CF card slot

So the big news here is that the Foleo utilizes Linux as it’s core OS. That’s pretty neat because that opens up the platform potentially to armies of open source developers. In fact, Palm’s press release states that it has “opened its design and is actively supporting third party software developers.” OK.. that’s a good sign folks. According to Palm, installing software could be as simple as downloading them via the web browser. Sweet.

Now if you check out the online presentation, you’ll see the Foleo coupled with the Palm Treo Smartphone left and right.. and in fact, the Foleo is designed to work with the Palm Treo smartphones - both the Palm OS version and the Windows Mobile version. However, Palm states that it believes most Windows Mobile based smartphones should work with the Foleo (probably through Bluetooth). On top of this, Palm states that most Smartphones from Research in Motion, Apple, and Symbian will “likely” work with “a modest software effort.” More importantly, according to Palm, the Foleo’s “synchronization architecture is open” and Palm will work with third party developers to ensure support with as many smartphones as possible. So that’s good news to us.

So what’s the bad news? Well it’s a bit expensive if you ask me. The Foleo is listed at $499 AFTER a $100 dollar mail in rebate. So the real cost is $599 to get this device. I’m sure Palm is targeting the business user right who might be able to afford $600 bucks for a mobile device like this but honestly.. you can get a low end laptop these days for that price. So what you get for this price is mobility really. I’m still a bit iffy on the premise of the Foleo and whether it’s really a new category or not (the UMPC is similar in many ways except that it’s even more expensive). Ultimately, in order for a device like this to really take off, the price ultimately must come down to something more reasonable. Make it $300 bucks or something. I admit.. a 10 inch screen is desirable for reading emails or surfing the web but $499 after rebate is still a hefty price to pay at the end of the day.

[Check out the product page]

[Check out the press release]

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