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Foleo proves a $10m faillure
Palm has finally come it its senses, axing its Foleo smartphone companion. It just took them $10m to get to that epiphany.
That's right, Palm invested nearly $10m in the product that will never see the light of day, chief executive Ed Colligan said in a blog posting (he had to, as it will significantly impact the firm's earnings).
Foleo was only unveiled in May and scheduled to start shipping "this summer" (so before 21 September). It was going to be the best thing ever, for real, according to Jeff Hawkins. And that says something, for Hawkins is credited with piecing together the first Palm pilot and the Treo.
Few people however felt a need for a mini notebook computer that works only with a Wi-Fi connection or a Treo smartphone. Critics and reviewers lined up to thrash the device, including Colligan himself. In his blog posting, he admitted that "we still have a number of improvements to make".
But Foleo won't go down the incinerator just because it's a lousy product. It's just that Palm had made the silly decision to have the Foleo run a special one Linux distro, while it is developing yet another one for the Treo that will ship next year (hopefully). Maintaining two platforms is expensive, Palm realized.
But the company stubbornly maintains that consumers can't wait to start buy yet another gadget. There might be a Foleo II, and that one might actually make it out of the gate, he hinted. Should we see that as a threat, or is Palm just trying to save Hawkins' reputation.
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Btw, if you have an urge to see more about the Foleo, vnunet.com TV has a 5-6 min video walk through of the device that shall never be mentioned again
Hawkins watches his Foleo go up in flames
September 5, 2007 at 01:04 AM | Permalink
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