According to a Barron's report published today, Deutsche Bank analyst Johnathan Goldberg has released a short note claiming that the
Foleo -- Palm's
much-derided quasi-laptop -- is headed for production delays. Goldberg states in the note that "In a round of checks yesterday we learned that the Palm Foleo will be delayed," and went on to say the snag is caused by "software bugs," which prevent the system from syncing properly with "most models of the Treo." Clearly not the news that Palm wants people to hear right now, with pressure already to-the-nines on the Foleo and its place (or lack thereof) in the market. With the recent addition of
Elevation Partners to Palm's board, the company is due to take on $400 million in new debt, but on a phone call to Barron's later in the day, Goldberg said that "a leveraged re-cap is not going to help them." Succinctly mirroring
Engadget's own feelings on the matter, the analyst noted that "There's something wrong with the company," and suggested Palm alleviate some of its problems by introducing "...new software," and "...new form factors." We couldn't have put it better ourselves.
Read -- Palm Sub-Laptop "Foleo" Delayed, Says Deutsche; Does Anyone Care?
Read -- Palm: It's The Software, Stupid, Says Deutsche's Goldberg; Where's the Sense of Urgency?
posted August 22nd 2007 8:55PM
Here's the thing, D... for the most part I think people want to agree with you. However, it sort of seems foolish when your flagship products are in deep doo-doo (those you mentioned and those you didn't -- like the 700p...).
I personally think the foleo *could* be a great way to get out-from-under the carriers and enabling Palm to innovate independent of the current carrier-constipation that messes up any changes or innovation that Palm tries to introduce.
I just wish it were lighter, a bit smaller, and had beefy enough specs to shut people up... so far, I can't see that they have this in place.
Even with instant-on, if the capabilities aren't there and the battery life falls victim to hype it won't take but ONE misstep, ONE flawed patch, ONE case of data-loss for this initiative to fail.
IMO, 2+ pounds in this day and age is just too heavy (unless the specs are KILLER otherwise).
- John Carter
@JohnCarter
Right back at you, in some ways I agree, but not entirely. Regarding your wishes, it wouldn't be practical at that point, not for what it's supposed to be. Lighter, not unless you want to compromise the battery, at which point you lose one of the key promises, extended battery life. A bit smaller, again, not possible. The inside is packed pretty tightly, so you can't shave it down thickness-wise. The margin of room to either side of the keyboard is mere milimeters, the bare minimum width they could support while offering the full-size keyboard, and the key size and spacing was tested at all different measurements (smaller keys, smaller spacing, etc), and they went with the size they did for maximum comfort-of-use to minimum-space ratio. Believe me, the designer was very proud to talk about the amount of care he took to design its form-factor. And shaving the depth decreases the space for the internal guts AND cuts down the monitor size, which, again, removes from the overall promise of the device. Trust me, a lot of thought went into designing this thing. And as for the specs, I personally wish they'd gone with a slightly stronger processor, but if there's something the computer industry is teaching us lately, it's that MHz mean very little, it's the practical and efficient application of the power that counts. Sort of like how 1,000 horsepower is nice, but without the torque to back it up, it means absolutely nothing. They're doing a good job of harnessing what it has, and much more would produce undue heat, which is very bad for a system without a fan.
As far as fatal mistakes go, battery life is, so far, exactly as promised (can't say it'll stay that way with media software loaded on it, as I don't have it yet to test). Flawed patches are, unfortunately, a hazard of ANY software venture and you're right, they could spell demise for the Foleo, so they need to be EXTRA careful about that. But data loss...the only time I have encountered that, so far, was installing the compact flash card to expand the storage. Doing so, the Foleo transfers system and user info the to CF card, wipes the internal storage back to factory, and shut it down. If you remove the CF card, all the data will still be on it (your email, your personal files, etc.), but they will no longer be in the internal storage. So long as Palm BEATS that into the customer's head forcibly, it shouldn't (you can't see me, but I'm knocking on wood) be a terrible issue. Otherwise, I have yet to lose a single file.
And really, 2.5 lbs. is still far better than most laptops, as your standard hard drive weighs a good portion of that.
But I certainly do feel where you are coming from, these are issues that the average consumer probably won't consider and it may in fact spell doom for the project, but, forums aside, prospects really do look good so far. Doesn't mean I'm not crossing my fingers, right?
Here's a crazy idea, and I hope someone important hears it!
Why do companys still insist on such secrecy with their products? Why not release a design idea to your potential customers (in large numbers, not some closed door testing) and get valuable feedback, FOR FREE!
I realize the desire to keep a product secret so that a competitor won't be able to copy it, but times are changing.
If I were Palm, I would release the details on what they are working on right now, before spending millions upon millions on research only to find out that the product SUCKS and WILL NOT sell(foleo)!
Show us what you think the next smartphone should be and then LISTEN to our opinions before finalizing a device.
Be the company to start a new trend, and allow your customers to essentially design their own device!
In engadgets open letter to Palm, they repeatedly spoke of a need for innovation. Change the way products are designed from the start, treat your customers almost as partners and you will end up with an amazing device with near guaranteed success.
Seems too simple, what am I missing here?
Good god almighty, you're singing a song I've sung many, many times. I am about 95% with you on this one. There are ways of gathering consumer input that aren't out in the open for all competitors to see. I believe Datel did just such a thing when the Nintendo DS came out, holding a contest for users to send input on what the new peripheral they would design should be. They got a lot of silly, nonsensical ones, and quite a few good ones. I do believe the winner even got to have the first one they'd roll out for free, which is a nice touch.
Now, I KNOW that Palm does your standard market research, and gets customer input (hell, they have me gather it on a regular basis) so they can attempt to keep in touch with customer demand. The largest problem I've encountered is that people want, in general, a large screen, they want a large, comfortable keyboard, they want long battery life, and they want it to be credit-card thin, and they want it all. Problem is, that's not practical. So, as far as feature and form-factor go, they're doing everything they can to satisfy the crowd. As far as physical appeal goes, I think they definitely should poll the consumer base, at the least offer them a selection of "swatches" to vote on, maybe hold open-forum on what changes the average consumer would like to see to their choice, maybe even have the more tecnically-savy customers send them rendered 3d or even physical models for suggestions. I firmly believe there's no reason that form and function have to be mutually exclusive. Then again, I've heard a lot of criticism on the Centro's design, and I personally rather like it. So, ultimately, you have those that really like the form, and those that do not, and you can't please them all. But, again on the flip side, I do think that the current form factor, even with the 680-755 redesign, is a tad bit stagnant and in dire need of a drastic update.
But come on...to say that the Foleo WILL NOT sell is just silly. There's DAILY inquiries at the stores of when they're getting them and if they can buy one yet. To say that it won't sell just because it's not YOUR cup of tea is, well...rather silly. There's a market, there's interest, it's just a question of whether there's ENOUGH interest, and only time will tell that.
OTHERWISE, I do agree with you, if Palm took more customer input than they do, they could create a truly revolutionary device. I'll pass the word up the chain, see if anyone listens. Couldn't hurt, right?