When Palm first announced the Foleo last week, its new portable device that will sell for around $500, my first reaction was, 'so what.' While it has some interesting features such as instant-on, full keyboard and 10 inch screen in a device about the size of a large paper back, it doesn't have any applications (or so I thought). (photo courtesy of Palm.)

In fact, I scoffed at such a device several weeks when I posted about the imminent demise of the UMPC arguing that someone who has $500 in disposable cash is more inclined to by an iPhone. a device that does all of the same things and fits in your pocket, all for the same $500.

Well, I've decided to rethink this position, at least to some degree and perhaps the two types of devices aren't mutually exclusive after all. My (partial) transformation came while researching an article on Enterprise 2.0, the concept of applying Web 2.0 functionality to the enterprise to help workers collaborate and work more efficiently.

It occurred to me that if we are doing most of our work on the internet, perhaps a small device with a full keyboard like the Foleo, could be the very item the mobile knowledge worker needs to access work and collaboration tools wherever he or she is, so long as there in an internet connection. While the iPhone certainly does all of these things, it doesn't have a 10 inch screen or a full keyboard and it still requires you to be an expert thumb typist.



It also occurred to me this morning while I was watching the Foleo demo that it would be perfect tool for an online operating system like Glide 2.0, an internet-based set of tools for sharing media and files and which includes a growing set of Office productivity tools. If you combined this online system with your Foleo, you might have something pretty powerful.

But then there's the rub (as there always is). What happens when you're offline? Your productivity grinds to a halt without off-line access to your applications. There are also security issues of having all your work on the internet.

These are problems (but the same ones you have with an iPhone or Smart Phone), so I'm rethinking this little machine. Maybe it isn't as silly as I thought initially and maybe it could be a very useful device, perhaps not a mass-market device, but one that many business users could find useful for accessing their web applications wherever they are. And at $500, it's a lot cheaper than a sub-notebook.

