A unit of Palm’s Foleo smartphone companion, since cancelled by the company, has showed up for sale on eBay. The Buy It Now auction has ended, but the device was being sold for $750 by Ixle, who used the Foleo to blog. It's not clear whether the device sold or Ixle took it down and kept it, as he was uncertain about getting rid of it.
RIM's rumored BlackBerry tablet is really just a revival of Palm's Foleo concept, tips today suggest. The 8.9-inch device would only be a companion to an existing BlackBerry and would provide a larger screen for books, movies, photos and the web. Either Bluetooth or Wi-Fi would provide the connection to the smartphone, with no 3G for the tablet itself.
Palm is reportedly poised to revive its canceled Foleo companion as a webOS device, an investor note from Global Equities Research says. Analyst Trip Chowdhry claims to know that the design will largely be similar to the original concept on the outside but will use webOS and serve as a true, stand-alone computer. By using an ARM processor and a Qualcomm Gobi chipset for 3G, the Foleo remake would get 8-10 hours of battery life while still having Internet access most anywhere.
Palm chief Ed Colligan today told APC in an interview about some of the first details of the next-generation Palm OS. Internally codenamed Nova, the Linux-based platform will focus on "Internet and Web-based applications" much more than the existing software and is also targeted at a different class of user. Future phones using Nova will be released under a new, unnamed "prosumer" brand that should slot in between the entry-level Centro and business-oriented smartphones such as the Treo line.
Palm's profits have turned to sharp losses in the company's second fiscal quarter as it struggles to revitalize its smartphone business, the company announced today. Roughly falling in line with the company's already lowered expectations, the company's three-month period ending November 30th saw the company lose $9.6 million on sales of $349.6 million. Palm earned $12.8 million on a considerable higher sales number of $392.9 million in the same quarter a year ago, according to the report.
A key former executive from Apple is already instituting major changes at Palm that may revitalize the Centro maker's fortunes in the long run, the Wall Street Journal. Executive chairman Jon Rubenstein, who was responsible for much early iPod design as well as the iBook, is said to have completely overhauled Palm's development groups to focus on individual devices and has reshuffled the talent pool at the company. Engineers he believes are important to the company have been promoted while executives have been forced out -- including at least one senior VP of engineering, according to the paper. Hirings are also believed to be faster, in part to increase the incentives for potential recruits.
