Palm Foleo: DOA

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By Dan Mosqueda
31 May 07

Palm recently introduced the Foleo as a new "companion." They announce the product on their website with the headline "Palm Advances Mobile Computing with Its First Mobile Companion Product." Hmmm.

"Foleo is the most exciting product I have ever worked on," said Jeff Hawkins, founder of Palm, Inc. and the visionary behind the Foleo's concept and definition. "Smartphones will be the most prevalent personal computers on the planet, ultimately able to do everything that desktop computers can do. However, there are times when people need a large screen and full-size keyboard. As smartphones get smaller, this need increases. The Foleo completes the picture, creating a mobile-computing system that sets a new standard in simplicity."

In May of 2005, just a bit over 2 years ago, Palm made this announcement: "Venturing beyond its well-known focus on the handheld and smartphone markets, palmOne, Inc. today introduced the LifeDrive(TM) mobile manager, an innovative product that fuses business productivity tools and entertainment applications. Designed for people with a significant volume of digital information, the LifeDrive mobile manager offers 4GB of hard-drive storage (3.85GB user available), a large 320x480 high-resolution color screen, and wireless access through built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth(R) wireless technologies."

The company's announcement continues: "LifeDrive mobile manager comes at an inflection point in the market, when people are ready for more advanced devices that meet their growing mobile-computing needs," said Ken Wirt, senior vice president of worldwide marketing for palmOne. "LifeDrive is versatile. For the business executive, it's a personal mobile briefcase; for the photo enthusiast, it's a camera companion."

In both cases Palm revels in its new product's ability to meet mobile computing needs.

I am sitting right now astounded that the LifeDrive is only two years old. I bought one last year ($399) while I was deployed to the Middle East. It was fantastic for keeping track of my incredibly busy schedule, it stored documents I needed frequently, and when I went running it served as my MP3 player. Now, it's defunct--less than one year later. Oh, and I also bought TomTom's Navigator 5 for Palm. It's a fantastic product and really made my LifeDrive have that little bit of extra value. In fact, it's probably how I get the biggest use out of my LifeDrive to this very day, even more than as an MP3 player as I travel to and from Washington DC, Texas, and other parts of the US. TomTom, following Palm's lead, doesn't support the LifeDrive any longer and I have no way of buying new maps. I'm stuck with what I have.

Palm is grasping at straws putting out a device that is even less useful than the LifeDrive. Who needs an additional electronic device to drag through TSA's checkpoints? I have a nice, thin and relatively lightweight laptop already. So I guess a new laptop, excuse me, mobile companion with little or no storage capacity, a non-standard OS (like the Palm OS itself, not many of use Linux, let's be honest), that can't even give you a glimpse of your calendar isn't really revolutionary and certainly not an "advance in mobile computing." Not a smart product for your smart phone or anything else.

My solution: Revive the LifeDrive. Redesign it into a slimmer package with a better compact keyboard with many of the Foleo's capabilities. Also, drop the microdrive in favor of a larger CompactFlash drive (8 GB or bigger). The benefits to Palm would be a re-energized Palm Pilot following. I'd probably even E-bay my current LifeDrive for such a device.

Like other writers, many of us don't even have smart phones. We have tiny little phones that slip into our pockets. So a mobile companion isn't even a thought. But an improved LifeDrive could serve both markets. You know, mass marketing, lots of profit, not niche products for executives with boundless expense accounts.

The moral of the story: In two years, and that's being generous, Palm will be discontinuing the Foleo leaving behind a bunch of cheap products being auctioned off on E-Bay. The mass market and the executive with money to burn should buy a really great laptop and forget this future paperweight.