Interesting.... so far, people here (who are naturally in the sweet spot for appreciating Palm) are saying 2:1 that Palm has nothing worthwhile left in them. I think that a lot of people had hoped for much more with the secret 3rd line of business and the PalmOS on Linux. I wonder how much of this is just an expression of frustration (which is what I'm feeling towards Palm at the moment, if you haven't noticed) or if it's a sincere feeling that Palm's day has passed.
With the Foleo release, it almost feels like Palm's future disappeared in a puff of smoke. The great hope was a gutted laptop, and general computing on PalmOS? The Foleo itself (in it's present form) really isn't as good as a UMPC, and people don't really want to do their general computing on PalmOS (or Win Mobile for that matter). The UMPC should be able to do all the tricks that the Foleo can, and the Foleo isn't even cheap enough to buy as an accessory. Who will want it? I'm guessing corporate field organizations that basically want their staff to have smartphones and a thin client, with constant connectivity.
What does Palm have left for mobile computing fans? Standalone PDAs are gone, so it's down to the Treo line, which seems to never really develop much. After the Treo 600, we've seen only tiny incremental improvements - Treos are sold around the world, have more memory, a faster data connection and a high res screen. Not a lot more than that in many years.
Apparently, the big success of Palm over the last few years was the creation of PalmOS on Linux and Treo on WinMobile. How can we get excited about that?
Maybe the magic was really in PalmSource (now Access)? Will we find that they have a credible platform soon? I hope so, because I'm afraid that with the exception of UMPCs, I'm starting to wonder if mobile technology will bore me to death for a few years now.
It could be time to read a good e-book and wait for someone to produce an interesting mobile device once again.
Disclaimer: I'm frustrated at the moment. Don't hold me to my current opinions. They are still being formulated, and I'm basically thinking out loud. Yes, that's a dangerous thing to do, especially when you are frustrated. But I think it may help others to work through their own frustrations, so maybe it's good.
And how can one really ever think of Palm as anything but the creator of widespread mobile computing? I guess even as we are disappointed for now, they have earned our lifelong appreciation, and Hawkins is still a hero for the Palm Pilot and Treo, which were spectacular successes.
In fact, maybe we have underestimated Hawkins. Maybe this first try at the Foleo line is really not even close to what he really has in mind. Maybe it's only meant to be a pre-Foleo model that can start the production lines rolling in preparation for a "real" device that people will want. Maybe, maybe, maybe... I think Palm used up all our faith for a great new thing just around the corner. Now, after ongoing frustrations, it's more like "prove it to me, and show it to me, and spell it out in detail, and then I'll believe."