The three biggest announcements to come out of the All Things D Conference earlier this year was Steve Jobs and Bill Gates sitting together, the Microsoft Surface, and the Palm Foleo. We covered the announcements from the conference extensively on PreviewCast #033, in which I lauded the Microsoft Surface as a good idea, and laughed at the Palm Foleo as a rather dumb idea (more on that below). As is very often the case, my opinions were rather backwards from most of the opinions I’ve heard across the internet, which liked the idea of the Palm Foleo (even the Mac web has been tracking it closely), and thought that the Microsoft Surface wouldn’t go anywhere at all. (Insert in here for your remembrance the argument that Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht had about the Surface on Diggnation #100.)

Well, the jury’s still out on the Microsoft Surface, but it turned out that my prediction of the Palm Foleo would be a stupid failure was right. It’s just, that, well, it was canned before it even went to market. Maybe Palm smartened up a bit?

Well, the idea of the Foleo was that it would be a “mobile companion”–something that would work as an accessory to your smartphone–hopefully your Palm Treo smartphone, but it was supposed to have support for other Bluetooth smartphones, including, incidentally, the iPhone. It was basically like a small laptop, with an 8 inch screen and a full size keyboard, but it wasn’t a computer itself. Instead, it was basically a way for you to use your smart phone, but be able to see its contents on a full-size screen and interact with it using a keyboard. Without the smartphone (which connects to the Foleo with a Bluetooth connection), this thing would be useless. Oh, and how much for the Foleo? How about $400? That plus the cost of the smart phone, which is already a few hundred dollars. How about you just go the whole way and just buy a real laptop instead?

Well today, right before these things were planned to start shipping, Palm cancelled the Foleo. Called a “surprising move” by MacRumors, Palm decided that they want to focus on building up their Treo smartphone base before opening up a new platform, which hints that there may be a new Foleo coming in the future. For them, this should seem like a wise decision, particularly with the iPhone crowding into their turf. Although, don’t you think that Palm oughta be putting a bit of effort into their handhelds? Palm currently offers only three different handheld organizer models which haven’t been revamped or updated in any way whatsoever for two years. I really think Palm ought to look at this category and start revving up their offerings in that space a bit, because that space isn’t as crowded as the smartphone space. I really think that Palm needs to get smart or else it will go down under, and the Foleo is a good example of the not-so-smart brains that are moving around over there.

Tags: article, cell phone, companion, Foleo, mobile, organizer, Palm, smartphone, Treo