Yesterday Jeff Hawkins, the founder of Palm and Handspring, tooks the wraps of Palm Foleo, a new “mobile companion” device.

With its 10-inch screen and full-size keyboard, the Palm Foleo mobile companion connects wirelessly with your smartphone to help you do more on the go. Unfold it, press a button, and it’s on instantly—while just one touch brings your email to the big screen.1 Use your Foleo to view attachments, type longer emails, or to get a bigger look at web pages and photos you’d normally view on your smartphone.2 And with up to five hours of battery life packed into such a compact design, you’ll do big things wherever you go.

Jeff says that about 5 years ago they extrapolated out the trends of increasing capability (storage, speed, etc.) on handheld devices, and realized that the limiting factors of keyboard size and screen size were not going to go away. So they envisioned a new market niche … a “companion” device to a smartphone that gives the user a bigger keyboard and screen when that is needed. The Foleo works by connecting wirelessly to the smarthone device, and sync’ing (say via Bluetooth) the emails that are on the device and then displaying them in the Foleo’s email inbox. The Foleo does not have wireless capabilities itself to connect to the Internet; it relies on the presence of a smartphone to do that. Indeed, it is a “companion” that extends the power of the smartphone.

The Foleo will be released in summer 2007, at an introductory price of $499 (after a $100 mail-in rebate).

Analysis
I have a long standing interest in devices and mobility as an industry analyst, so here’s my considered opinion:

• Going Back to the Psion, HP-95LX and Newton … Before Palm brought out its ground-breaking Palm Pilot in the mid-90s, if you wanted a device for mobility you needed something larger … with a decent screen and a keyboard. The devices of choice before the Pilot were from the Psion range, or an HP-95LX (man, I wanted one of those!), or an Apple Newton (although it didn’t have an in-built keyboard, you could connect one by cable). The Pilot changed the landscape … it made handwriting recognition work for the masses, and delivered a form factor that made portability a no-brainer. The Foleo is a return of the pre-Pilot days … the benefits of a big-screen and keyboard, but with the attendant weaknesses of size and bulk to carry around.
• Business/Executive Market … In the business world, people view their smartphones as a companion to their desktop or laptop devices — it’s not the main device. It extends the capabilities of their standard computer when they are out-and-about, or when a full machine isn’t needed. If their main computing device is a desktop, then a companion (Foleo) to their companion (smartphone) may be of interest, but if they have a laptop, the interest will be much less. Why wouldn’t they just carry their laptop around (albeit heavier to carry and generally more difficult to connect to the Internet than the Foleo is positioned to be)? With respect to using the Foleo during transit times, I don’t see that as being much of a go. As I shared based on my experience in New York during May, when the roads are bumpy or you are in a crowded train, pulling out a full device (laptop or Foleo) doesn’t work — the thing bounces around if you can balance it on your knees, and in cramped spaces, it’s too difficult anyway. A small device with a thumb-driven keyboard works because your arms counteract the bumps and it is small enough to use. The Foleo isn’t going to change those dynamics.
• Education/Student Market … In the education market, students increasingly view their mobile phone as their primary device — and computers as secondary or companion devices. Given that they shift around frequently between classes, and between campus and their dorm room or home, they need something that is persistently with them, and a mobile phone plays that role nicely. Web-based communication and storage services work in this market segment, because of the need to get to “my stuff” from any computing device on the planet. A Foleo-style companion device in this market segment may work fine … it’s the size of a small textbook, and it delivers good local value when a larger device is needed. The positioning of the Foleo as a relatively-inexpensive “companion” device may work just fine in this market.
• Healthcare/Medical Worker Market … Perhaps another segment where the Foleo find a home is in healthcare situations. Imagine this scenario: a doctor going their rounds carries their smartphone with them when visiting a patient. It’s the device that stays with them wherever they are, but when they get to a specific ward, the head nurse hands them the local Foleo. Now when can carry both their smartphone and the shared Foleo when they go from bed-to-bed, and use the Foleo’s larger capabilities for accessing patient records, for viewing X-rays and other medical charts, and for updating the central system. All of this is brokered through their smartphone–thus giving them inherent authorization to sensitive data–but is accessed and inputted via the Foleo. That could work.
• Shared Foleo’s in Meeting Rooms, Airline Lounges or in Business/First Class … Another scenario that could work is that an organization buys a series of Foleo devices as “shared infrastructure” that are kept within a specific meeting room. When you turn up for a meeting, you no longer have to take your laptop (perhaps the meeting is only 30 minutes long — probably not worth it unplugging all those cables), but instead have your smartphone with you and you take one of the shared Foleo devices on entering the room. You use that to type your meeting notes, or to give a presentation, all moderated by the authorization brokered through your smartphone. Another place where this idea could work is in airline lounges or even in business or first class in the sky … a harried executive who has 5-10 minutes in the lounge may not want to pull out their laptop, but would gratefully take a Foleo for a spin for that time. Or in the air, a Foleo could be a value-added “special” service for high-end travellers for whom pulling out their laptop isn’t ideal.

Net-net: I don’t see this as a home-run for Palm, and it may not even get them to first base. There will be some segments that find it interesting, but I don’t see that translating into big sale numbers.

Summary and Conclusion
How about you? Is the Palm Foleo a “must-have” in your life? Why? I’d love to hear your thoughts.