Welcome back to the TamsPalm Foleo interviews! Today, Iain Barclay from Electric Pocket joins us for his take on the Foleo – let’s go:
Please tell us more about yourself and your company! We are developers of popular Palm and Windows mobile applications, including BugMe!, Ringo and LobsterTunes.
What did you expect Palm to release? What were your initial impressions of the Foleo? We were expecting a tablet device, probably with large touchscreen and now keyboard.
We were initially underwhelmed by the Foleo, and its description as a “smartphone companion” – we didn’t really understand how that could be a large market device.
What do you think about the device now that the news is out for a few days? We quite quickly realised the potential for this device almost as a “web 2.0 client” – for reading the web, gmail, etc. around the house and other places we go. I also think my kids will love it. I can see a big potential now for people to use this as a “laptop lite” – an easy to use device without all the cost, bulk and time consuming aspects of a real laptop. I hope that it is really capable in this direction – I’m especially interested in its media handling abilities.
Do you plan to produce products or provide services for the Foleo? I hope that we will. We will certainly investigate it as a possible platform.
Do you think that the Foleo will sell well? Will it get a successor? I think that depends on how well the story is told. I would certainly hope enough will sell for a Foleo 2.0
The Foleo looks very much like a subnotebook/UMPC mixture. How will it fare against UMPCs?
I think it will do fine. It seems much simpler, and that is a good thing.
The Foleo was hyped almost as much as Apple’s iPhone. Which of the boxen deserves the hype more?
Probably neither deserve the hype they’ve had, though the iPhone seems to have fared better in the “industry reaction” stakes since its announcement.
Would you prefer Palm to open the Foleo platform to other hardware developers?
No, that would be a big mistake. They need to control the hardware and software, and make the whole platform great.
How will the Foleo affect the Palm OS economy and the PDA/smartphone market in general?
It will be interesting to see. In some respects I think this is to the side of that space, so it may create a whole new set of opportunities.
Anything you would like to add?
I’m certainly excited to get hold of a Foleo and see what can be done with it. I really hope it is well executed, and simple to use – that is what its promise is to me. I hope it is the perfect computer for my Mother and my kids!
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