The Far Side of Tech

I know pretty much everyone has ripped Palm a new one for the Foleo, but I seriously have to say something here: What the hell? The device is meant to be a companion piece to the Treo, or a “smartphone companion” as they’re calling it. The Foleo can synch with the mail already on your your Treo, and can also use the Treo as a network connection to the internet. Apparently, it seems that Palm thinks there is a market exclusively among smartphone owners for such a device.

The Foleo also has built-in Wi-Fi and is a fully functioning “mini-laptop” without the smartphone pairing. You can browse the web and manage e-mail on its 10″ screen, but it seems that’s about all you can do. It’s running some sort of Linux variant, and fully solid-state storage, but details have been scarce so far. You can read the Gizmodo preview for the full skinny.

My main issue with the device is that it really doesn’t do much, especially given it’s $499 price tag after rebate. I could see the intent for such a machine, to be sure. I’ve often dreamed of owning a cute little laptop such as this just to write on, but sadly the Foleo is not my dream machine, mainly because I didn’t imagine spending $500 on it.

I’m also not sure how Palm can afford to release such a uselessly niche product when their competitors are jumping on this new market. Just yesterday, Asus announced a similar 7″ mini-laptop called the Eee which looks to kick the Foleo to the curb before it’s even released. It features Wi-Fi, Windows XP or Linux compatibility, 512MB of RAM, and a 4, 8, or 16GB flash drive for storage. The best part? It starts at $200.

The Asus Eee

These “mini-laptops” have been big in Japan and Korea for some time now, so I’m glad that we’re finally getting to see something similar here. The Eee in particular offers an affordable and eco-friendly portable option that suits the basic computing needs for most folks. The device is also part of Intel’s Classmate PC initiative, which means it was also built specifically to serve as a cheap computer for children in the developing world.

Palm was wise in trying to create an ultra-tiny laptop for people who just need to read e-mail and browse the web, but I believe their failure is in completely limiting the Foleo to those purposes. And then they couple that wise thinking by pricing it not much less than a cheap Dell laptop.

I’m quite certain that while Palm is trying to shove these things out the door, the Asus Eee will end up being one of the hottest items this year.

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