How to make Palm's Foleo a winner, in ten easy steps

AFTER reading all reports on Palm's first sub-notebook, I cannot share my colleague's excitement. Palm certainly has some competitive advantages, like "Instant-On", but the size of the device kills it.

So, after using the Nokia's linux-based N800 Internet tablet, here's my advice to Palm Inc. on how to make it a killer. In other words, it's my "Top-Ten Foleo suggestions for Palm Inc." -not in order of relevance-:

1. Change the Name. I can only wonder "what were they thinking?". The WinMob crowd is having a field day making jokes about the name. Of course, they are as unbiased as Microsoft's CEO commenting on Linux. I would personally suggest... "PalmBook" or "Palm Agenda", as good replacements for the current Fogly name. The earlier the company admits its mistake, the better.

In the meantime, the WinMob crowd -along with the Church of Cupertino devotees- will continue making fun and playing with the name. From my favourite sighting "Palm Fooleo, handmade by Cornholio" to Cnet's " Foleo Folly" headline, or Gearlog's "Will Foleo Fumble?".

I predict that the "Foleo" name will be specially unsuccessful in Spanish speaking markets, the sound of the name sparks images of "feo" (ugly) and "oleo" (oil), and no positive attribute at all. Whereas "Palm Book" or "Palm Agenda" immediately gives an idea of what the device is and where it's coming from. Plus, this is a bit stretched too far, but can't think of any successful tech gadget whose name starts with an F... unless you consider the Furby a tech gadget rather than a toy.

2. Make it multimedia-friendly. Hey, even the N800 can play videos and has decent built-in speakers. Nokia learned the lesson the hard way with its previous N770 which didn't have enough horsepower to play YouTube videos flawlessly, and hence the N800's CPU was updated -still, some think a few more Mhz wouldn't have hurt on the Nokia-.

3. Do not mention the Smartphone! Do not picture it next to a Treo!. Most people are pretty happy with their cellphones, or smartphones. [Now I'm talking to you, Mr. Palm Marketing Manager] Your job at Palm would be selling the PalmBook to everyone not just Treo owners[end of talk]. In fact, if the Foleo does not need a Treo for connectivity, then please, Palm, cut the "smartphone companion product" association, and stop picturing it next to a Treo. That is, if it wants to lure the non-Treo crowd. I read a lot of people turned off and saying "do I need to buy and carry a Treo AND that big thing at once to do mobile e-mail?".

4. It's too expensive. If the firm could come up with this device at the price of $400 -even if it means a slightly smaller screen -see point #9- then it would be a killer.

6. Improve on the Nokia N800's front memory socket idea. Nokia's Linux internet tablet really scored with its double SD memory sockets -one hidden in the back, the other on the front-. I'd like to see a Foleo with multiple front sockets for every type of storage (microdrive, CF, SD, MMC, even Memory Stick). Basically, like a memory card reader. Since "memory readers" are as cheap as chips these days, this should be a no-brainer and an easy to make modification.

7. Make it VOIP-friendly. I would love to see the Foleo come preloaded with a SIP standard VOIP client. Hey, there's a couple existing PalmOS sip clients available. I bet one of the two developers would happily accept a free Foleo in exchange for the work of making sure their application works on the device. And no this won't have any negative effect on Treo sales, people would still want to carry their phones. And no, it won't have any effect on mobile carriers getting up in arms with you... as the current Treos can already run those PalmOS VOIP apps!. The company would be just extending a subset of the Treo functionality to the sub-notebook.

8. It should be able to run PalmOS / GarnetOS applications. It's not clear by reading the sales speech if any form of "Palm OS Virtual Machine" is included. The general consensus seems to be that it's not there. Users in forums have the same doubts.

Since the firm purchased full rights of Palm OS to "do as they see fit" -the right to branch and evolve it-, it should be technically possible. Choosing Linux as the foundation for this device was a good move, but what about letting us run our favourite PalmOS apps on it?. The higher-res screen could easily emulate a PalmOS Hires+ screen in landscape mode, either in pixel-to-pixel or 2x "zoomed" mode. And no, people won't stop buying a Treo 680 because they can run the same apps on the F'thing.

9. Release a smaller, complementary version. Leave the standard-size version for two reasons: a) to avoid admitting your mistake, b) because a few out there might actually find the current sized version useful. But then, quickly, develop the same device but in a smaller, middle-of-the-road form factor. Something between a Nokia N800 and the current Foolio. As you can see on this comparison photo of the Nokia N800 and the Foolio, there's room for a version of this device but sporting a 6.5 or seven-inch screen.

While the N800 fits in a shirt pocket and is an improvement over a PDA, it's 800px wide resolution still sometimes forces the user to do some minor horizontal scrolling to see 1024x768 web pages. The Palm Cornholio but in s smaller version with a seven-inch screen would instead be able to fit in a man's jacket pocket yet maintain a 1024px wide resolution. That would eliminate the main current complaint about the device, namely "it's too big".

10. Name the two F'things the same, just add "lite" (or "pocket") to the smaller version. See point 9 above. Think about it. PalmBook, and PalmBook Lite. Or "Palm Agenda" and "Palm Agenda Lite". Or "Pocket". Anything but Foolio.

11. Fire the "creative team" which came up with the name. And the market research crowd which concluded consumers reaction to the name was "positive". Because you did that research, right?.

That's it. That's my free advice for the company. My first PDA was a US Robotics Palm Pilot Pro, and I have enjoyed the simplicity of its OS and its efficient tight apps ever since; I also have a Nokia N800 and know the strength given by a Linux foundation, so, in short, I humbly think that I know what a PalmOS -at least one like me- would like to have.

Unfortunately, Palm in the past has been a pretty deaf company, so I don't have high expectations about getting any feedback. Other smaller companies did listen to me. But most don't, sadly. So if anyone at Palm is reading this, consider this my last "message in a bottle", at least to your company. And when you're done with it, how about releasing a clamshell version of the Treo 680?. µ

See Also
My ideal Laptop has just arrived
Palm's Foleo Apes Ericsson
Nokia's Cheap UMPC alternative is "future proof"
PalmOS smartphones and PDAs get SIP VOIP client
NY Times and WSJ blast Windows-powered Treo
Open Source, the only weapon against "planned obsolescence"
Abacus WristPDA - A watch goes where no PalmOS PDA has gone before
How Palm's CEO shot himself in the foot

Related L'INQs
Access Inc. releases Garnet OS VM compatibility kit
Palm Inc. prepping its own Linux-based OS
Five Reasons the Palm Foleo Makes no Sense
Photos: Palm Foleo
Palm Foleo OS screenshots and Hands-on gallery
Foleo: "hardware for webware, still too expensive"