What really happened?
September 8th, 2007
Clearly Mr. Colligan’s "two platform" explanation for the Foleo cancellation is only part of the story. But it is a great-sounding part of the story. It really does make sense for a company in Palm's position to focus on one platform. Spreading around time and resources to maintain two operating systems would only drag down the quality of both.
That said, the two platform line cannot possibly be the sole motivation behind Colligan’s “difficult decision” to kill off the Foleo. That’s the kind of thing that you work through earlier in the process, not when you’re ready to ship the product out the door. The Internet consensus is that geekblog feedback convinced Colligan that the Foleo would flop. (Ignore for a moment that there was growing support in the PDA/smartphone media, as well as in other markets.)
Treocentral forum member Andre Kibbe (Gameboy70), who a couple months ago wrote that great hands-on Foleo preview, has some interesting theories:
…as negative reactions from the press mounted, Elevation, with its controlling interest in Palm, probably killed the Foleo singlehandedly. It makes more sense to me that a new investor would dispassionately kill a $10 million project (not unlike laying off the WiFi team) than Hawkins, or even Colligan, suddenly having a change of heart.
Then this:
It's possible, though unlikely, that Colligan's mention of cancelling the Foleo "in its current configuration" may be a way to buy half a year to "reconfigure" the software — the 2.6 kernel, direct email access, a PIM, an improved browser — for a flash ROM update on the existing hardware.
While I would love to see a revamped Foleo arrive early in 2008, I fear that the Foleo name has become poison to the Palm world. And if Elevation really did "encourage" Colligan to kill the project, it's unlikely that a second Foleo will ever be green-lighted. This really may be the end of the road.
I still want one.
September 8th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
Maybe, maybe not.
I’m not sure we’ll know the whole story — ever. But the Foleo stuff I’ll be posting contains speculations no one else have (yet) made (stop writing already, you!).
And the Foleo could have been saved, but Palm stopped being Palm a long time ago.
September 8th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
It’s an interesting theory, and one that makes me wonder: There was clearly a market for users who like the idea of something simple that can sync easily and wirelessly with their existing smartphone devices to provide extended functionality. It’s possible that an Apple, RIM, or others may seek to duplicate some of the Foleo’s functions into UMPC- or laptop-like devices. Apple has proven particularly adept at marketing moderately-priced, simple to use devices, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised seeing a “mini-ibook” or a similar device aimed at working in conjunction with their iPhone (especially considering the lack of a keyboard on the iPhone).
September 8th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
I don’t know, David. Apple had a mini-iBook in the eMate, and they killed that off. About the time of the original iMac, there was some talk about a replacement for the eMate (without the Newton OS, of course) but nothing ever came of it. Frankly, while I’d love to see somebody other than Palm run with the Foleo idea, I do hope it isn’t Apple. Perhaps the main attraction of the Foleo for me was the keyboard. Apple’s record as regards keyboards in moderately priced devices is far from good. It was the cheap, flimsy keyboard on my iBook that drove me to replace it with a Windows notebook.
I agree that the “two platform” explanation sounds good but it doesn’t really make sense. We’re talking about a phone/pda on the one hand and, on the other, an email/web browser/writing device. It’s to be expected that they would have different operating systems; I don’t think it’s reasonable to present this as a mistake that needed correction.
September 9th, 2007 at 2:14 am
So far, the rumour mill seems to think that any “Macbook mini” projects from Apple would be more in the fully-loaded, subnotebook line, with the premium price that such machines usually have. (And with the Apple “cool tax”, as well.) So I think the keyboard would probably be fine, but it wouldn’t at all be what this market is looking for.
Not saying that Apple won’t try this market again. It might be nice, and it would be nice if other companies saw that there is still a need for a simple, instant-on laptop that does a few things well, without the bloat and complexity of a desktop OS.
September 9th, 2007 at 7:47 am
I think the cancellation was a good move if it will mean better software and software support for the device. And there is a LOT of hope for a improved Foleo in Colligan’s message. Read it carefully… there’s no way he would have used this knd of language if he felt that they couldn’t release an improved one in the future:
Our own evaluation and early market feedback were telling us that we still have a number of improvements to make Foleo a world-class product, and we can not afford to make those improvements on a platform that is not central to our core focus. That would not be right for our customers or for our developer community.
Jeff Hawkins and I still believe that the market category defined by Foleo has enormous potential. When we do Foleo II it will be based on our new platform, and we think it will deliver on the promise of this new category. We’re not going to speculate now on timing for a next Foleo, we just know we need to get our core platform and smartphones done first.
September 9th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
the fooleo fanbois keep on ticking. give it a rest already. eddy cancelled the project cause it would bomb, period.
get an iphone, way more functionality for the money.
September 10th, 2007 at 1:20 am
And how exactly would I type ANYTHING on an iPhone?
September 10th, 2007 at 10:59 am
Shredder: I’ve got “functionality” coming out my ears (anag.); I want a keyboard I can use, and to be able to browse the web on a screen that’s considerably larger than the iPhone’s 3.5 inches, but that I can still easily carry around.
I just read a description of the iPod Touch as “the web in your pocket”. I don’t want the web in my pocket (I already have a Nokia N800 so I know what that’s like). I want to be able to tuck the web under my arm.
September 11th, 2007 at 9:46 am
This may be out of left field so to speak but I think ‘Garnet’ killed the Foleo. The ability for the Foleo to seamlessley interact with Treo’s (all currently running Garnet - via Bluetooth) just could not be made to work in an effective and reliable way as needed to make the Foleo an enjoyable experiance. The Sneak Peaks of the Foleo all relyed on Wifi (802.11b) to show off the Foleo internet experiance and there were even a couple of references from the notes of people reporting on the Sneak Peak events that the Foleo/Treo Bluetooth conection was not available to try out yet.
With a single OS (on Treo’s and Foleo) I assume this issue could easily disapear and hence (perhaps) the reason for the cancelation or delay of the project with note that Palm has to focus on one OS.
Just my percieved judgement of what was going on behind the sceans.