May 31, 2007 – GOODBYE personal digital assistant, hello “mobile companion”.  PDA and smartphone giant Palm Inc has introduced a compact mobile computer that should attract the attention of handheld IFE providers looking for new commercial off-the-shelf platforms.

It should also encourage the emerging air-to ground broadband providers, whose market is currently constrained by the functionality limitations of smartphones and PDAs and the bulk of laptops, which effectively rules out their use outside the premium classes.
 
Described as a “mobile companion,” Palm’s new Foleo has a 10in screen and a full-size keyboard with which to view and edit email and documents residing on an accompanying smartphone. Edits made on the Foleo are automatically reflected wirelessly on its associated smartphone, and vice versa.

“This is for business people who want a more complete mobile solution for email, attachments and access to the Web,” says company founder Jeff Hawkins. “Smartphones will be the most prevalent personal computers on the planet, ultimately able to do everything that desktop computers can do. But there are times when people need a large screen and full-size keyboard.”

The new device weighs 2.5lb and has a five-hour battery. It switches on instantly and can support email, full-screen Web browsing, and editors or viewers for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF files. Bluetooth short-range wireless is used for synchronisation with the smartphone, and WiFi for general Internet connectivity.
 
It is designed to work initially with Palm’s Treo smartphones, which come in Palm OS and Windows Mobile versions. The company believes that most smartphones with Windows Mobile should work with little or no modification, however, while those with operating systems from Research in Motion, Apple and Symbian could probably be supported with modest changes to the software.

Foleo is also a powerful ultra-mobile PC in its own right – it has a Linux-based operating system, USB port, video-out port, headphone jack, and slots for SD and compact flash cards for memory expansion – and it has clearly been designed with working in aircraft in mind. It is sized to fit on an airline tray table, and its instant on/off capability will allow users to comply promptly with flight restrictions on electronics.
 
It has a number of other features that developers of full-scale laptops would do well to emulate - a dedicated button provides access to email, work is continuously and automatically saved, and the device resumes where the user left off the last time he switched off. Physical features include a scroll wheel, forward and back buttons, and a tracker/pointer that don’t require the user’s hands to leave the keyboard.

Foleo will be available in the USA from this summer, priced at around $500.