NudgeCast 6/18/09

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Thoughts on the Palm Pre and the new iPhone.

Download the mp3 here.

Palm Folds Foleo

I'm not at all surprised to hear that Palm is folding up their tent, and can canceling the Foleo. This product didn't make sense to me at the time. When it was announced, I put my nickel down, and had this to say about it:

Palm needs to get back to what it does best- making a really good handheld. If it can't easily fit into my pocket, and I need to carry it in a separate bag, than I'd rather just bring my notebook along for the trip. Sure, one day the notebook may evolve, dumping its hard drive for flash memory, and becoming lighter and more reliable. As the Foleo is being positioned as a smartphone accessory, and most users have regular cell phones and not smartphones, I think they went for a niche that is just too narrow.

One of the fun parts of commenting, and ultimately trying to predict the next trend, is going back, and seeing how close we are to what really happened. In this case, I was awfully close. Here it is, right from the Palm CEO's mouth:

In the course of the past several months, it has become clear that the right path for Palm is to offer a single, consistent user experience around this new platform design and a single focus for our platform development efforts. To that end, and after careful deliberation, I have decided to cancel the Foleo mobile companion product in its current configuration and focus all of our energies on delivering our next generation platform and the first smartphones that will bring this platform to market.

He also goes on to say:

I hope this renewed focus at Palm will allow us to deliver more compelling solutions to our core smartphone market, and it will allow us to position ourselves for the long run around one Palm experience.

Seriously, I could have saved the Palm folks around $10 million buckaroos that they wasted on this Foleo project.

Palm defined, and popularized what a handheld could do. Their move into smartphones was a natural progression of their business. They've made some bad decisions, like putting a hard drive into the Palm (Lifedrive) when flash memory was becoming affordable in larger capacities. Still, the iPhone may have stimulated the smartphone category, but it can clearly be improved upon. Palm needs to focus on their core business, and not be distracted by their side projects like the Foleo. We all look forward to new products in this market segment, and a return to Palm innovating, and expanding their product line.

--Jonas

PS: I'm looking forward to the iPod "dog & pony" show tomorrow, and expect some commentary.

Dead Palm...Almost!

It's a constant challenge to keep the full array of computers and electronics up and running. Those who think that testing hardware is all fun haven't ever tried it. Today I tried to turn on my Palm T/X and the thing was deader than a doornail. I pressed the button several times, and even hot the hard reset, but absolutely nothing happened.

I started to think that even if I decided to replace the unit, unless I want another one exactly the same, Palm hasn't come out with anything new. Sure, they keep promising Linux, but have yet to deliver the goods.

I then wandered over to HP, the other major handheld player left. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they have come out with a new low end unit, the iPaq rx4240 Mobile Media Companion. It works with Office files, and can play back music and display photos. It also has WiFi, and can load SD cards. It goes for $300 which is not cheap, but probably about right for now.

Also, I quickly considered a smartphone. However, my cell phone contract isn't due to be renewed for another 18 months or so making this not a realistic option. I also found this article showing some non-Apple phones running a very iPhone looking skin. I hope in the next round of phones we find some manufacturers moving in this direction and not letting Apple monopolize this type of technology. If Apple were smart they should license their OS, but they have a long history of not doing this to their detriment.

Anyway, I plugged in the Palm, and waited a while. The AC power flowed in, but the unit still seemed dead. I even pressed in the reset button to no avail. After about ten minutes, I tried again, and the screen lit. What had happened? Everything worked ok, but the battery had completely drained.

Then I figured it out. I had left the Bluetooth ON the last time I shut down the T/X. For whatever reason, at least on my unit, the Bluetooth still sucks in the battery power and drains itself. Totally ridiculous, but easy enough to fix. The Bluetooth is now completely off, and the battery charged. Excellent! My handheld is back to normal again.

--Jonas

PS: The Amazon reviews for the HP were better than I expected, click the link below to see what I'm talking about. While I still like my T/X, if I was replacing it today, I'd be leaning towards the HP.

Palm meets Linux

Over a year ago, I had heard that the Palm folks had plans to ditch their OS, and to integrate some type of mobile Linux into their portable machines. As their handhelds haven't been updated in a while, I was fully expecting some type of Linux based T/X to appear on the scene. However, today they announced the Foleo, a smartphone companion.

Details are sketchy, but just from the appearance, it looks like a subnotebook with a 10 inch screen. The idea is that users can read and respond to emails from their smartphones while away from the office. The Foleo can also access the internet via WiFi directly. It claims that it can handle email attachments, and play PowerPoint presentations making it well suited for business use. It has no hard drive, and uses Compact Flash cards for the system memory; the processor is a mystery but I wouldn't expect a dual core speed demon here. Setting one back for $499, at least it's not ridiculously overpriced for a 1st gen product. One advantage is that it is always on, with no boot time (Palm handhelds are like that until they crash...).

Hold on a second though. Even a youngster like me remembers that this has been tried before. Last year it was Intel's push for the Origami ultra portable computers, and that fizzled more than an Alka-Seltzer tab, which the engineers probably needed when they saw the sales figures. A few years before that it was the Windows CE OS to be used in both handheld and purpose built flash based notebook like devices. Neither device took off, and I don't expect the Foleo to fly too far either.

It's simply too hard to compete with a full fledged notebook at that price. Even for under $500 today, there are some no frills notebooks that will offer all of the flexibility that a real computer will supply. Then there is no concern of if it will be able to use an attachment, or be compatible- issues that will come with the Foleo. It's hard to beat the flexibility of a real notebook, and this Foleo reportedly can't even play flash video, like that from YouTube.

Palm needs to get back to what it does best- making a really good handheld. If it can't easily fit into my pocket, and I need to carry it in a separate bag, than I'd rather just bring my notebook along for the trip. Sure, one day the notebook may evolve, dumping its hard drive for flash memory, and becoming lighter and more reliable. As the Foleo is being positioned as a smartphone accessory, and most users have regular cell phones and not smartphones, I think they went for a niche that is just too narrow.

--Jonas