Sunnyvale, Calif. — Palm will not bring to market a previously announced Foleo “mobile companion” because the company is moving to a next-generation software platform.
In a Palm blog, Palm CEO Ed Colligan said the company has decided not to deliver the product previewed to the media in May because “Foleo is based on a second platform and a separate development environment, and we need to focus our efforts on one platform.”
The company said early market feedback also showed that improvements would be needed to the Foleo, and it would not be cost effective to make those changes on the old platform.
Palm said it is in the process of building a new software platform that will include a modem, flexible user interface, instant performance and simple environment.
Colligan added, “Jeff Hawkins [Palm founder] 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.”
The Linux-based Foleo was a laptop device without a hard drive that provided a larger screen “shell” for PDAs and smartphones. Users could transfer their email and data to the Foleo via Bluetooth from their smartphone. It was aimed at heavy email users and was expected to eventually work with other brands of PDAs including RIM BlackBerrys.
