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Palm says new Foleo a cell phone sidekick with e-mail access |
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Palm Inc. has unveiled a small, laptop-like digital device intended as a companion to multipurpose cell phones.
The new Foleo features a 10-inch screen, a full keyboard and wireless syncing capabilities that will enable users to harness the computing power, e-mail ability and Internet access of their smart phones.
Palm founder Jeff Hawkins, who showed off the device Wednesday at the D: All Things Digital conference, said the Foleo is intended for smart-phone users who have been itching for a way to view and edit e-mail on a more expansive and comfortable device.
"This is the most exciting product I've worked on in a long time -- in fact, ever," Hawkins said. "It really completes the vision of Palm. It really shows you how you can get to a great, simple personal computing experience with mobile devices."
But some analysts were skeptical, saying the company, which has been hard-pressed to follow up on the success of its Treo line of phones, seems to have struck out with the Foleo. Despite record sales in the most-recent quarter, Palm posted a 61 percent drop in profit as it struggled to compete with larger rivals like Research In Motion and Nokia.
The increasing competition has prompted some investors to call for a sale of Palm to a larger company or at least the development of a breakthrough product to re-energize the company's lineup. Analyst Todd Kort with Gartner Research said the Foleo is not likely to be that standout product.
"I think it's the most disappointing product I've encountered in several years, considering all the secrecy and hype we've gotten about it," Kort said. "Basically, the thing is way too big and heavy. You won't take this thing around as an adjunct to a phone."
Hawkins, however, touted the benefits of the 2 1/2-pound Foleo, saying it will find an audience, starting with mobile e-mail users.
The device, which works on the Linux operating system, will be in summer at $499 after a $100 rebate. It will feature Wi-Fi, an SD card slot, USB port, room for a compact flash card, an Opera Web browser and the ability to sync with smart phones using Bluetooth technology.
Users will be able to view all their smart phone mobile e-mail accounts on the Foleo, as well attachments and PDF files, using a program called Documents To Go. Edits made on the Foleo will instantly transfer to the smart phone, and vice versa.
The device, with a five-hour running time on battery power, can be turned on and off instantly without a warm-up or power-down period.
The Foleo can be paired with Palm Treos and smart phones running a Windows Mobile operating system, although Palm hopes to make the device available in the future for BlackBerrys, phones like those from Nokia that run on a Symbian operating system and even Apple's iPhone.
The Foleo only syncs e-mail accounts from Pocket Outlook for Windows Mobile and Versamail, with hopes of adding more e-mail systems in the future, Hawkins said.
Palm's new device is not intended to replace a laptop computer, Hawkins said. Indeed, its small processor isn't suited for that or even for properly viewing Internet video. But he said that as the device evolves and takes on new applications, it can expand its reach into new areas.
"You can do an awful lot with this product," he said. "We expect clever people to expand on that, and we look forward to where that takes us."
Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Gold Associates, questioned how many people will be interested in carrying around another device, especially one with a large price tag that lacks laptop abilities such as Microsoft Office software or a multimedia player.
"This is one of those 'tweener devices that I don't know who will buy it," Gold said. "Rather than spending time on this thing, they should have updated the Treo to make it more competitive with BlackBerrys and Nokias."
Palm's stock finished up 42 cents, or 2.6 percent, at $16.60 on Wednesday.
Submitted Date: Jun 02, 2007
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
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