Palm's Foleo: It's time for a proper resurrection
Palm's initial attempt at the NetBook, seen here was well before its time. The Foleo came out in May of 2007 just as smart phones had started proliferating the mainstream. The idea of carrying around a limited functionality laptop was far fetched at the time as application usage was still for the most part in the form of fat installs and not in the cloud. Today, most applications are delivered seamlessly through browsers making a fully functional operating system on a laptop a luxury not a necessity.
Since then the market for NetBooks is starting to mature as many hardware manufacturers are releasing their flavors. Analysts now predict that Netbooks will make up 50% of computer purchases by 2012. Google has its eye on this market with the release of its Android OS as does Microsoft with Mobile Windows both of which will work on a variety of manufacturer's hardware. Apple's Tim Cook has alluded a lack of interest in the market, so its up to Palm to deliver an amazing seamless experience including touch on their WebOS in a sexy rendition of the Foleo.
The Foleo needs to look less like a laptop and more like a tablet PC with multi-touch capabilities. It needs to be cool enough to warrant grown men to carry it in a bag smaller than a laptop bag; a murse so to speak. This is an important barrier that can only be broken by the sheer excellence of the product. Its not an easy task, but success in creation would put Palm back in the players club.
