Foleo Folded: Palm Kills Ill-Conceived Notebook Before Birth
In theory, the idea behind Palm's Foleo project was sound: making a light, thin device that just big enough for a keyboard and screen that uses a connected smartphone for internet connectivity and storage. Rather than haul around a laptop, the Foleo would be your "laptop away from your laptop," giving you a pleasant interface for dealing with email, light web browsing, and writing.
Of course, it was going to be a dud. And Palm, blindly flailing in the smartphone space, made the correct, if embarrassing choice: they killed it in utero, taking a $10 million hit to profits in the process.
The perfect form factor for a QWERTY device is still an elusive goal, but one worth pursuing. A keyboard just large enough for two-handed touch typing plus a screen large enough to be usable at arm's length would be worth the hassle of carrying it around. Ironically, the Treo coupled with a decent fold-out keyboard was one of the better options for this sort of interaction if you ignored the tiny screen.
The problem is that a small keyboard and screen still needs some processing power of its own as well as a power supply. And the space requirements for a processor, a little ram, and a wireless chipset are far exceeded by those necessary for a screen, a keyboard, and battery. If you're going to add all that in there, there's not much reason to go ahead and throw in full-blown chips, leaving you with a sub-notebook or something like the Asus EEE laptops.
Pretty much everyone in the consumer electronics industry knew this, which is why the Palm Foleo project was greeted with such skepticism. (The other reason was that everyone knows Palm is dying and wants them to focus on making their flagship, the Treo, a killer product again.)
Someday a company will figure out how to stash a useable QWERTY keyboard in a form factor that is as pocketable as a phone. (What I wouldn't give for a nice fold-out keyboard, plus requisite word processing software, for the iPhone.) Despite talk of working on a "Foleo 2," that company will probably not be Palm.
A Message to Palm Customers, Partners and Developers [Blog.Palm.com]
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I already *have* a "laptop lite," it's called my refurbed Sony Vaio. The thing weighs 2.8 lbs. with the battery in, fits in the front pocket of even some of my girly handbags, and is actually a pretty robust little thing.
What was Palm thinking? Anyone geeky enough to have a smartphone already has a laptop--why would they want an "almost ran?"
OTOH if they had marketed this as "an integrated, affordable laptop and personal communications solution" and sold it for $300 on wired college campuses, they would have made a fortune. I really only use my Vaio to read email, do writing assignments, and start conversations at hip little cafes :D
I already have a tower unit at home as well as a "heavy lifting" laptop (huge 9-lb. Dell thing that really can connect to just about anything or any office system), a work laptop, and my machine at work. I betcha most folks on this board are similarly tricked out. A college student is not--they probably have a machine at the dorm for homework and would love something light just to take notes on.
I had a Palm Pilot back in the beta days, and it's sad to see the brand take a tumble.
Why so much fixation on a keyboard? Obviously everyone is used to having one attached to their computer, but if it's detachable, then you have the option of using it OR.. leaving it behind.
This is a space where compromise is necessary to have a portable device that is usable.
And then understand that the device will not be very usable for everything.
Unfortunately, no one likes compromises.
Unfortunately for Palm, the Foleo did nothing well.
I personally don't consider a Treo keyboard very usable. I'd rather have a bigger screen. I also don't consider anything that does not fit in my pocket to be mobile. That pretty much kills full size keyboards.
If it's bigger than your pocket, the decision to bring the device with you is much harder. If it fits in a pocket, it's a no brainer.
The best option I have found for something truly portable with both WiFi and mobile data connectivity is the Nokia N800.
No keyboard, but the touchscreen works well and it will work with a bluetooth keyboard.
I'm a former palm user (palm iii > handera 330 > sony sj20 > palm tungsten e).
The best setup I had was the handera 330 with the palm folding keyboard. The resolution on the handera was excellent (the software graffiti was way ahead of it's time), dual expansion card slots, I don't mind tiny text, and the keyboard was laptop quality. I see what they were going for with the foleo. I just don't think it would have taken the world by storm.
The initial impetus behind the palms was to "take your desktop with you". Just the important stuff (calendar, notes, contacts, to do list, and a game of solitaire). Why carry this foleo thing at all if you could just carry your laptop with your outlook/etc? They were in the process of shooting themselves in the foot.
The palm devices have ALWAYS taken a back seat to 3rd party models. Handera (TRG) was doing interesting stuff really early on. Sony came out of the chute and blew away palm with a flurry of different models and form factors. It's no surprise there wasn't a lot of WOW behind this thing...
QWERTY made sense 100 years ago. But, nowadays, I wish people would let it go. (I'm not talking about layout in terms of which letter goes on which button, you can reconfigure that in software. I'm talking about the painfully stupid arrangement of the physical keys.) Producing the most highly polished turd isn't my idea of perfection.
#5: What input method do you prefer?
Honestly, I like ye olde keyboard for input. Grafitti was a necessary evil when I had a Palm. If I ever get a Smartphone I may have to pick it up again. However, I can type over 120 WPM even on my compactish Vaio keyboard, while Grafitti just ain't it by any stretch of the imagination.