One of the first netbooks – the Palm Foleo
When we look back at the short history of netbooks, it’s easy to think of certain key moments – from the introduction of the ASUS Eee PC to the OLPC XO notebook to the very first PSION system. However, thanks to this PC Magazine article by Tim Bajarin, I’m reminded that we really need to thank another man and his invention – that man would be Jeff Hawkins and his invention, the Palm Foleo.
The Foleo made its debut in early 2007 before it was eventually killed off by Palm management in the Fall of that same year. However, before it was killed off, I did manage to get some quality time in at an invitation event that summer. You can read my original posting about that event at Krunker.com.
The original concept for the Foleo was to deliver an ultra-compact, lightweight notebook-like device that would extend the usefulness of a smartphone. Hawkings envisioned the Foleo to provide a better viewing experience than a smartphone – thanks to the 10.2 inch display and full QWERTY keyboard. Yet, the Foleo would also leverage the smartphone by wirelessly connecting to it and allow users to read/write email through the smartphone’s wireless internet connection.
In fact, if you look at the Foleo’s original specs, it’s hard not to see a netbook configuration. Here’s what I wrote back in 2007 for the Foleo specs:
- 10.2 inch widescreen LCD display
- Full-size QWERTY keyboard
- Weight of 2.5 lbs
- Up to 5 hours of battery life
- DataViz Documents To Go for Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint files
- PDF viewer
- Photo viewer
- Web browser
- Bluetooth 1.2 wireless technology
- Wi-Fi 802.11b
- SD/MultiMediaCard expansion slot
- CompactFlash slot
- Scroll wheel
- Previous and Next buttons
- One touch email sync button
- Linux OS (kernel 2.4)
- VGA output (with an included adapter)
Sounds like your modern day netbook right? Well.. unfortunately, the Foleo was 1) underpowered, 2) overpriced, 3) not full featured, and 4) arguably a bit ahead of its time by a few short months. It was originally priced at $599 which was later lowered to $499 before it was just outright killed off.
Ironically, we found out a few months later that if you price a full featured compact notebook with “good enough performance” below the $500 dollar line, consumers would jump on it. That system? The ASUS Eee PC netbook.
Yet Hawkins clearly was onto something with the Foleo. He had the vision that people wanted an Internet-connected, ultra-portable notebook like device – it was simply ahead of its time. As Tim puts it:
“Jeff got the PDA and smartphone right well before anyone else, and it looks as if he may have done it again. “
Thanks Jeff!
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