Breaking news out of Silicon Valley today. Ed Colligan, the big Kahuna over at Palm, has just published a blog entry saying that Palm will not be shipping the Foleo. The Foleo, you may recall, was to be a “smartphone companion”, not quite a laptop, but more than a PDA. Colligan was a big supporter of the device, so this was no doubt a hard decision for Palm to make.
In the blog entry, Colligan states:
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…
We’re honestly with him on this point. While the Foleo was and interesting idea, we think the execution was poorly timed and not in-sync with the way the Treo line of smartphones is likely headed. By getting Treo updates out the door faster, Palm will show that it’s not the stagnant company many think it’s become.
Maybe after the new platform launch and hardware updates, Palm can re-visit the Foleo. This looks to be just a case of a company getting its ducks in order, which we applaud.
A Message to Palm Customers, Partners and Developers [Blog.Palm.com]