Palm Foleo Not Such A Bad Idea?
Palm just doesn't seem able to catch a break these days. Take the Foleo for example. When Palm announced it, it made waves but also drew some criticisms. Once VIA announced their Nanobook, many were keen to compare the two and it seemed that Foleo wasn't winning too many armchair comparisons by the world's forum jockeys. Once Asus entered the fray it was more or less over for Foleo and Palm pulled the plug.
But the Foleo might be responsible for an entire segment of UMPC/mini-notebooks.
“It's easy to point to the Eee PC from Asus and its surprising and instant popularity. But the Eee wasn't the first to employ the broader concept of a mobile Web device that looked like a notebook PC, but was meant to function more as a secondary device. That was the idea brought to us by Palm founder Jeff Hawkins with the Foleo.”
Once the Eee PC hit retail it was an instant success and we're starting to see Nanobook designs show up in the same price range. On top of that we're hearing rumors of both HP and Acer developing new models to compete in this field, and we wouldn't be surprised if others joined in too.
To consider that all of these products may owe at least a small part of their success to the Foleo is probably not a comfort to Palm at this point and we can't help but wonder if we'll see a revised Foleo-like product from Palm one day.
But the Foleo might be responsible for an entire segment of UMPC/mini-notebooks.
“It's easy to point to the Eee PC from Asus and its surprising and instant popularity. But the Eee wasn't the first to employ the broader concept of a mobile Web device that looked like a notebook PC, but was meant to function more as a secondary device. That was the idea brought to us by Palm founder Jeff Hawkins with the Foleo.”
Once the Eee PC hit retail it was an instant success and we're starting to see Nanobook designs show up in the same price range. On top of that we're hearing rumors of both HP and Acer developing new models to compete in this field, and we wouldn't be surprised if others joined in too.
To consider that all of these products may owe at least a small part of their success to the Foleo is probably not a comfort to Palm at this point and we can't help but wonder if we'll see a revised Foleo-like product from Palm one day.
