Analyst: Palm Foleo delayed due to serious flaws

Palm's Foleo smartphone companion notebook has been delayed, says a new investor research note from Deutsche Bank. Analyst Jonathan Goldberg claims that the device, which had originally been scheduled to launch this week, has been delayed to late September or early October to combat serious bugs with the miniature Linux computer. In many cases the Foleo would not even synchronize properly with most of Palm's own Treo models -- especially the Treo 680, Goldberg says. Sources speaking to the researcher claim that the software glitches have pushed back a ship date a month to late September or early October.

While Deutsche Bank hasn't changed its share targets for Palm, the alleged delay appears to reinforce criticism of the device's purpose as a more convient front-end for reading and writing information from a smartphone. The Foleo comes at a time when its maker has been criticized for neglecting the Treo line, leaving the PalmOS virtually unchanged for years and relying on a similar basic hardware design since the Treo 600. Palm's spring introduction was also said to have shown a premature device.