Palm kills Foleo so it can concentrate on Linux

PALM CEO Ed Colligan said on his bog that the firm won't be releasing its Foleo "mobile companion" device, to focus on a "single software platform" - Linux - for the company's upcoming phones.

The Foleo was "close to shipping" according to Colligan, and that means that a lot of wonga went down a hole: "This decision will require us to take a limited charge of less than $10 million dollars to our earnings. This is a lot of money, but it is a small price relative to the costs that would be required to support two platforms going forward."

He made it clear that it's quite possible that the firm will insist on the Foleo concept, but this time based on the same Linux core as the upcoming phones. In the CEO's own words: "Jeff Hawkins and I still believe that the market category defined by Foleo has enormous potential. When we do Foleo II it will be based on our new platform, and we think it will deliver on the promise of this new category."

Apparently, the firm wanted to avoid maintaining two different, Linux based software platforms, which would have proved a headache for ISVs and users alike, and that's why the firm is scrapping the Fooleo until it's got their single smartphone Linux OS ready to go.

According to the CEO, the company's new vision is to "offer a single, consistent user experience around this new platform design and a single focus for our platform development efforts". He didn't provide any timeframe on the availability of this long-awaited Linux based OS which will also face competition from similar offerings from Access, Nokia, and Motorola.

He recognised the Fooleo Foleo wasn't up to snuff: "Our own evaluation and early market feedback were telling us that we still have a number of improvements to make Foleo a world-class product, and we can not afford to make those improvements on a platform that is not central to our core focus" and didn't provide any timings for the next release, citing the "need to get our core platform and smartphones done first".

Despite this particular announcement, and looking at the big picture, some might wonder aloud why can't the phones industry get along and embrace a single Linux kernel/GUI platform, and then compete on features and inventiveness on top of it, instead of peddling four different development environments to the poor independent software developers community. Clearly the "NIH" - Not Invented Here - syndrome is a plague of the IT world. µ

L'INQS
Ed Colligan's blog post
How to make Palm's Foleo a winner, in ten easy steps
Our Mohney on the Foleo
Nokia's cheap UMPC alternative is future-proof

See Also
Infoworld: five reasons the Palm Foleo makes no sense
Palm selects WindRiver as its Preferred Linux Platform provider
Palm denies Foleo delay
Palm Inc. preparing its own Linux-based OS
Access Inc. releases GarnetOS VM compatibility kit
Nokia director speaks on Linux, Open Source
Linux will be in one out of three smartphones by 2012
Nokia Siemens joins Linux Foundation
Motorola's Linux phones arrives at US stores
Motorola unveils MotoGMAX mobile Linux platform
Nokia wants to make its Linux based Hildon part of Gnome