Just my prediction …
I was actually hoping that Palm would really go for it with this new Foleo device, but when I started reading the leaked PR last night one thing stood out which is that it has no connectivity options other than bluetooth which makes it 100% dependent on your phone. This is an interesting approach, but as someone who’s been using a Nokia N800 tablet for a long time, I can tell you that there are PLENTY of times when I just want to browse the web and use my local wifi connection simply for the speed.
(I now know that it does in fact have Wifi which is good.)
The Foleo’s primary mission seems to make it easier to view, edit and compose email and attachments which has always been a strong point of the Treo – the primary smartphone for which it’s been designed to pair. In theory other devices will also pair, though I’m sure the pure Palm path will be the ideal way to go. I like that this device is running linux and I suppose it’s close in look to what the eventual Palm OS / Linux version will be, but there’s not even a hint as to how it works or what you can do with it beyond the basic applications they’ve shared on the web demo.
I’m left thinking that the Palm Foleo is larger than any second device I want, does less and costs more. By my count, that’s three strikes. I’m not sure Why Jeff Hawkins thinks this will be so wonderful, when instead of a crippled machine like this a savvy user would choose from an increasing number of tablet, UMPC and soon MID devices…
Technorati Tags: Foleo, Jeff Hawkins, Palm
