"It's hard to dump too much on Hawkins. The man invented the Palm Pilot and the Treo. I once invented a novel method of stacking beer cans in a fridge (the key is not to buy any food). But after Hawkins unveiled the Foleo at the D: All Things Digital conference--arguably the most prestigious gathering of the computing elite--with proclamations like "it's the best idea I've ever had" and "the most exciting product I have ever worked on"--Palm's decision to cancel it without even a product launch must be mortifying for Hawkins."

"But what is Palm going to do? Speaking of mortifying, Ed Colligan must be wondering why he gave Hawkins $10 million to go down into the basement and come up with Palm's Next Big Thing, only to emerge with the Foleo. Almost universally panned by analysts and bloggers, the Foleo was a lightweight Linux "mobile companion" that was designed to read e-mail, but didn't work with corporate e-mail software from RIM or Motorola, among a multitude of other sins."

"While it's embarrassing, Colligan made the right decision. You've got to know when to fold them, and the Foleo wasn't going to beat anything better than a pair of sixes."

Palm clearly knew that it risked its reputation of being a "Mobile Computing Leader" if it had released a half baked device like the Foleo. While it may be embarrassing right now, Palm is better off in the long run that they decided not to release a device that couldn't live up to expectations, especially their own.

I'm a huge Palm OS supporter, but never thought the Foleo made sense. Palm's Treo is still considered one of, if not the best smartphone available (I'm also an iPhone owner, but find I still love my Treo). Palm needs to re-focus their energy on improving and strengthening their strong Treo brand, and I'm glad they've decided to do just that and cancel the Foleo. I never understood why I would want an accessory as large as the Foleo for my Treo, and it seems Palm finally realized the same thing. Two many cooks spoil the broth, the same can be said about "Mobile Companions" and smartphones.

Labels: foleo, palm