An Apple Competitor to the Foleo?

[Mi An]

It's only a matter of time before an innovative company such as Apple comes out with a low-cost, super-light, instant-on machine that will wow tech-heads, leaving Palm in the position it is in right now—playing catch-up in a technology category it pioneered.

I'd hate to see that happen to Palm, but it's pretty much what I expect. I also don't want to wait for Palm to face it's demons to get something similar.

[bulls96]

Thats one of my greatest fears too... having Steve Jobs pick on the concept and then make the world fall in love with it and give Apple credit for creating such a device...

Does palm have a patent hold on this concept already? Ben? i hope so...

[Mi An]

Thats one of my greatest fears too... having Steve Jobs pick on the concept and then make the world fall in love with it and give Apple credit for creating such a device...

Does palm have a patent hold on this concept already? Ben? i hope so...

You can't really patent an entire device category, so whatever Foleo patents exist aren't going to preclude copycats. The meat of the Foleo doesn't really depend on innovate tech, it depends on innovative perspective (putting existing tech together better), and you can't patent that either.

[Matt J]

Thats one of my greatest fears too... having Steve Jobs pick on the concept and then make the world fall in love with it and give Apple credit for creating such a device...

Does palm have a patent hold on this concept already? Ben? i hope so...

Actually.... there have been many rumors of Apple working on an instant-on long-battery-life flash-based subnotebook running a lite version of MacOSX similar to the one on the iPhone and (now) iPod Touch. Sounds like the ill-fated Foleo, except more powerful. You can bet it will be a success.

[SeanH]

Actually.... there have been many rumors of Apple working on an instant-on long-battery-life flash-based subnotebook running a lite version of MacOSX similar to the one on the iPhone and (now) iPod Touch. Sounds like the ill-fated Foleo, except more powerful. You can bet it will be a success .

Over a year ago Toshibia was working on an instant-on long-battery-life flash-based subnotebook running a full version of Vista similar to the one on the desktop and (now) many laptops. Sounds like the ill-fated Foleo, except more powerful. You can bet it will be a success.

It is shipping now and it weights less then the Foleo. The device is called Portégé R500-S5003. Here is a link

http://cdgenp01.csd.toshiba.com/cont...500-S5003.pdf#

SeanH

[Matt J]

Over a year ago Toshibia was working on an instant-on long-battery-life flash-based subnotebook running a full version of Vista similar to the one on the desktop and (now) many laptops. Sounds like the ill-fated Foleo, except more powerful. You can bet it will be a success.

It is shipping now and it weights less then the Foleo. The device is called Portégé R500-S5003. Here is a link

http://cdgenp01.csd.toshiba.com/cont...500-S5003.pdf#

SeanH

Point taken. My main point was that if Apple releases its flash-based, instant-on, subnotebook, it will be marketed to the extreme... like the iPhone and iPod Touch. It will be cool and everyone will want one... just based on the coolness factor. Palm and Toshiba never market their products like this...

[SeanH]

Point taken. My main point was that if Apple releases its flash-based, instant-on, subnotebook, it will be marketed to the extreme... like the iPhone and iPod Touch. It will be cool and everyone will want one... just based on the coolness factor. Palm and Toshiba never market their products like this...

I do not agree with that. I strongly believe if Palm released a device identical to the iPhone it would have been successful. I believe if Apple released the Foleo with all their hype it would have failed.

I would not buy an iPhone because of the lack of 3.5G and that it does not support Push Email. But the device is highly innovative and brings a new class of devices to the Smartphone market. It will influence future versions of Palm OS and Windows Mobile OS. Best of all it is a device that has a market, and people will buy it.

The demises of the Foleo was that it was two close to devices that are already shipping. The ultra thin laptops like the Portégé R500 will run any of the billions apps for Windows. The Foleo would not have had more then 30 apps by the end of the year. The Foleo did not bring any innovation to the market, the iPhone brought a lot.

I would predict that if Apple created an ultra thin laptop with more processing power then the Foleo, that it would not be based on the ARM CPU like the iPhone. They would use a x86 processor like the existing Macbooks. The current Macbook is not a lot larger then the Foleo. Its .14” thicker, 2.23” wider, 2.25 deeper, and weighs 2.6lbs more. If they used Solid State storage and a shrunk the device it could be the same size as the Foleo. Best of all it will run the millions of apps for MAC OS X.

SeanH

[holvoetn]

<In an attempt to turn this back to the SW aspect ...>

If Apple would have made a Foleo-like device as a companion to iPhone, it would have been a closed environment and no 3th party SW would be allowed.

[Matt J]

I do not agree with that. I strongly believe if Palm released a device identical to the iPhone it would have been successful. I believe if Apple released the Foleo with all their hype it would have failed.SeanH

We'll have to agree to disagree. Apple is a "hype" company.... at least it is now. The iPod, iPhone, iMac, etc... They know how to market their product. They know how to have people camp out for 3 days in tents waiting in line for a product that they don't really need.

Apple knows how to make a PDA (iPod Touch) and not call it a PDA. They don't even mention that the Touch has a good calendar application and a contacts manager.

If the Foleo was the iMacMini and the Treo was the iPhone, the product would have succeeded on the basis that it was introduced by Apple.

[zap2]

We'll have to agree to disagree. Apple is a "hype" company.... at least it is now. The iPod, iPhone, iMac, etc... They know how to market their product. They know how to have people camp out for 3 days in tents waiting in line for a product that they don't really need.

Apple knows how to make a PDA (iPod Touch) and not call it a PDA. They don't even mention that the Touch has a good calendar application and a contacts manager.

If the Foleo was the iMacMini and the Treo was the iPhone, the product would have succeeded on the basis that it was introduced by Apple.

I really don't think it would.....yes, people are more willing to buy stuff from Apple based on their history of great products....but if iPhone was the same the Treo, same old OS, same lacking specs....it wouldn't be selling like iPhone is.


AppleTV, not a huge hit. Apple's isn't losing money, but its not selling like an iPod