Foleo Processor Details Revealed?

> ...Palm just needs to get the software right...

You forgot the smilie.

BestBuy has been specifically mentioned as a retail parnter (in fact, the only specific non-Palm partner referenced by name) in Palm's Fooleo sales strategy.

Now, (as of this past weekend) BestBuy are one of the new nationwide retail chains still carrying the remaining Palm PDA line (Z22, E2, TX)--albeit at prices about 3-5% HIGHER than Palm's MSRP.

Assuming this oddball strategy continues going forward, expect the Fooleo to cost more from BestBuy than it will from Palm.com or from a Palm retail store/kiosk. Peanuts, yes, but once you hit $600, those extra $20-$30 tacked onto the pricetag hurt the Fooleo's chances even more (as if the $399 Acer Pentium dual-core notebook running Vista on sale a few rows over at the very same BestBuy wasn't damaging enough!)

As a wise man once said, "Whatta game!"

P.S. Remember how the T|E2 launched at $220 but was quickly dropped down to $200 (I think Brighthand or someone even wrote that Palm told them that the price would drop once the initial sales rush wore off)? I'd expect the Fooleo's $100 rebate to, upon expiration, become a permanent price drop. I think (6 months from now) Palm will mainly try to push mail-in rebate types of promotions like "Get a Foleo for $199.99 with the purchase of any new Treo and activation of service from ________!"

This STILL isn't the purely stand-alone, retail-oriented, no ties to carrier-branded devices whatsoever, mass-market device that Palm needs right now. Palm NEEDS a device that they sell to the crowd who do not want to see "Palm" and "wireless carrier" anywhere in the same sentence.

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P

I visited BestBuy yet again the other day (think 'cause Kidlet had been promised a DVD or something) and was, a-GAIN, struck by how NOT "Best" BestBuy was for all things electronic.

I regularly get MWave and NewEgg SPAM (due to building Yet Another PC with their parts), now Crutchfield, too.

All HIGHLY recommended.

Terrible customer service, violent management, and the prices are usually retail or above. I like to visit there in the winters (when the carnivals are in hibernation) to see the freak show of "carnies" hawking extended warranties and people foolishly spending their money there.

Bwahahahaha!

> ...What Would Beersy Do?

According to him in a "veiled comment", he signed up quite some time ago.

Veiled? My exact words were "I for one am *very* enthusiastic, both as a user and developer."

I make a very nice living as a mobile application developer. I'm not announcing or promising any products for Foleo at this time. The "if" and "when" will depend on other irons I've got in the fire, and Pikesoft's main business has always been developing applications for other companies. I also wouldn't see much benefit in pre-announcing an application in any case. But the fact that I or any other developer decides to develop for the Foleo shows that they are willing to put real money where their mouth is.

As for you guys, you aren't even willing to put your real name on a PIC comment (not that I can really blame you, heh!)

David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
www.pikesoft.com/blog

I would have changed my mind, too, after finding out more about the Fooleo.

No change of mind at all. I said I wasn't promising Foleo app announcements from Pikesoft before, and I said I'm not promising them now.

But from my perspective the system and specs on the Foleo seem pretty spot-on for what it needs to do. I'd rather have the good battery life and that big bright screen than a hotter processor.

David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
www.pikesoft.com/blog

>>>As for you guys, you aren't even willing to put your real name on a PIC comment

I am. The Flopeo still sucks ass nevertheless.

Return to earth from your trip already.

Cool - I'll quote you officially then - On Yahoo someone was touting your company's "blog" as a source of learned poop on the Fooleo.

Now I'll post, with link, that you think the Fooleo sucks ass.

Giggle.

> ...With a link, no less!...

Of course - nothing means squat out here unless you can confirm it with an information source outside your control.

> ...I find myself becoming more and more convinced of the idea
> that they've had to rush it out before its ready...

When "Member of the Executive, but titleless" Jeff Hawkins says DURING the very-public introduction of the Fooleo to Walt Mossberg and Kate Swisher:

== "...If I could do it again I'd put a faster processor in it..."

you could probably lay money on the line that the device, after three years, was indeed "rushed" out.

... of course i meant version 2.4.21

---
"home is where my computer is..."

This again suggests how long the LifeDrive 2 FOOLeo has been ready for: Palm is ready to release it with a 4 year old kernel! (Of course maybe Palm has decided that 2.4.21 is "good enough" and it's too much of a hassle to re-integrate newer kernels into the Foleo's version of PalmLinux.)

http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/

http://www.kernel.org/

TVoR

Even if Palm doesn't release another PDA, someone there with half a brain must realize by now that Palm is going to lose millions on the Foleo. None of the reviews have been positive, and I see no demand from customers. Palm, please cut your losses and cancel it! Or at least, delay, delay, delay until you can get some devices out there people actually want which run the same OS, so you might actually get some developer support.

It's like the ship is sinking, so Palm decided to go build a dock to tie it up at. They need to right the ship first.

Palm is like the poster child for how to take a company who has been given every opportunity to succeed and the management will find a way to guarantee that they'll run it into the ground.

No, SV, I think we can safely consider Palm totally out of handheld/PDAs in the conventional sense of the term. They will most likely drop the prices one final time on the remaining three models and try to coast through the end of the year. I could also see them droping one model (maybe the E2?) and consolidating the two remaining models at the $79.99 & $199.99 pricepoints just to maintain a toehold on their retail presence until the Fooleo arrives.

AT BEST, assuming the Fooleo ends up with stronger sales out of the gate than we are expecting, I could forsee Palm releasing one or two spin-offs of the Fooleo architecture: The "fullsize" original Fooleo could be joined by a smaller clamshell Windows CE-sized device (no CF slot, video-out etc), and possibly a larger tablet-oriented device (Samsung Q1-sized perhaps?).

I think that the Treo line will continue along essentially changed for at least the next year, with the higher-end Treos running WM6 and the midrange and low-end Treos running WinMob Standard & various permutations of FrankenGarnet.

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P

I guess the thing to me, and for anyone who hasn't handled one ... the iPhone is essentially where Palm ought to be with PDAs right now. Beautiful screen, light/right feel, graphically appealing, combo of Bluetooth, WiFi and cellular, advanced input techniques, etc. ... but the thing that pulls it all together is OS X underneath. Apple has not gotten it perfect yet either, so there is certainly room for Palm in the market. Palm has needed a new PDA/smartphone OS for years, yet instead of putting resources into that, they develop a new OS for a one-off, low power laptop. Maintaining an OS is not a cheap affair either.

If Palm is going to get their act together, they need announce that the Foleo is part of an advanced mobile OS strategy to have a consistent OS across multiple Palm handheld/mobile devices (Treos/PDAs in particular). If Palm starts letting developers write apps for this hi-res, mouse pointer-based interface, having developers take those back to smaller screens and touch/button input is going to be a much bigger hurdle.