Apple Should Do a Foleo (But On Steroids)
Palm announced a new device today with the name Foleo and I think it might be one of the first good things Palm has created in years. It is a “small mobile companion”, that targets user with the need for more in a phone and less in a laptop. The device reminds me of something I have been thinking about recently, as I was thinking of what next device Apple had to make for me.
Ever since I switched from a Windows desktop to a Mac laptop, I have been thinking of how this changed my lifestyle. I used to have a PC at home, and when I traveled around I actually used to use other people’s PC to remote desktop to my own PC at home. Although easy, this method depended on my internet connection at home and the internet/workstation availability at the location I traveled to. I love the fact that I now have a laptop with me at all time that has my data (recently upgraded to 160GB) and settings. But I think there is a market for a different device.
And this is where the Palm Foleo comes in. The Foleo offers a real companion to you mobile phone, and has a nice 10.2 inch screen and a full size keyboard. The targeted market for this device is clearly people who really want to send emails and browse, but don’t like telephone interfaces. I admit, even with my N95 I only use the Wi-Fi to search for hotspots, and once located I get my MacBook out of my bag. With the amount of people carrying around fat mobiles with horrible interfaces, and others carrying around heavy laptops in order to access their email, I started thinking of a product that would be far easier.
Imagine that Apple would make a device like the Folio in the form of a “MacBook Mini”, allowing you to easily access your data on your iPhone and syncing at home with your nice iMac. I think a Folio-like device would do for on the road as I never need a dvd/cd drive, could really do with a solid state hard drive, and would really not mind a smaller screen. There are some hints that Apple is going in the direction of an even smaller MacBook, as many PowerBook 12″ users haven’t switched yet because they are missing an ultra-portable model.
I hope that Apple understands the trend of our society and uses its powerful experience in syncing to make the world a better place.
Jona
June 6th, 2007I’d love to see an apple version of the foleo as well. The two biggest differences I can imagine from the Palm version are “online-backend” versions of itunes and iphoto. It would syncronise everything on my iPhone to my .mac account and vice versa. No need to worry about backups and the device stays small, cheap and light. A slicker UI would be nice too, maybe a backlit keyboard with silent mode for meetings…
Cristiano Betta http://ibbydibby.com/
June 6th, 2007Exactly. I think that Apple has so much experiene here that can be used. I don’t expect to see this until the iPhone comes out though.