Is The Foleo Completely Dead Now?

I’m still planning on writing (all I have are notes in the cloud my head right now) the remaining two parts of my Foleo Disaster series.

But in the meantime, I thought I’d update everyone on an extraordinary phenomenon taking place here.

Seven of the Top Ten Posts here are all about the Asus Eee. (I’d put a nice JPEG of the list here, but WordPress is unwell right now. When WordPress is well again, I’ll strikethrough this and post the JPEG I’ve saved on my hard drive.)

The only other time my Top Posts were virtually monopolized by a subject was Heather Johnston!

(I can post a JPEG for that because it’s already in storage at WordPress. I can’t get it to swallow new JPEGs!)

Asus has both time and economies of scale on its side now. The Foleo was withdrawn, giving them more time to introduce the Eee. And its evident amazing popularity here at this blog just towers over the number of readers who have come here for anything about the Foleo. This means Asus will sell a frikkin ton of them — and that means they can pressure component suppliers to drop their prices. This means we will eventually see price drops along the lines of the iPhone (not that I expect a $200 price drop; but that low-end model could finally go for its original $199 price by early next year).

The Foleo had Treo email sync, which was laughed at. But it had several things I liked: the screen size, the full-size keyboard, and the ability of Palm to gather developers for it (that was unprecedented; the Linux-based Sharp Zaurus didn’t get that; the Nokia Anti-Internet Tablets still don’t have that after being out over a year!).

But now those things just might not matter much. The seven-inch screen is Good Enough. I’ve fondled it on the Samsung UMPCs and it can be used fine. The keyboard might be a problem, but I have a USB keyboard in a pinch. As for developers — well, Asus is bundling so much software with it, that just might not matter at all. They learned from Apple to fill a box with useful software, making the out-of-the-box-experience immediately productive.

Palm would really have to pull one hell of a rabbit out of its hat to compete against the Asus Eee.

Even worse: I really do expect Apple to announce a Flash-based small notebook of some kind in January.

So where oh where does that leave the Palm Foleo?

It might be completely, totally, irredeemably dead.

A collector’s item.

Previously in this blog: (Asus Eee)
Asus Eee: Real Hands-On Report With New Pics
YouTube: New Asus Eee Vids
Asus Eee: Alleged Hands-On Report
Asus Eee To Do Color Covers
Asus Eee Versus Raon Digital Everun
Asus Eee: More About Its Keyboard
Asus Eee: The New Timex-Sinclair?!!?
Asus Eee: OS X?!
Asus Eee: XP Runs!
New Asus Eee Article
Asus Eee: Increasing RAM Possible
Asus Eee: OK. Wait. What’d He Just Say?!!?
Asus Eee And Palm PDAs
Asus Eee = Flybook = RSI
Blog Notes: Yes, I’m Working On It!

Previously in this blog: (Palm Foleo)
Foleo: Dude, I’m Not Getting A Fat-Ass Dell!
Size-Off: Foleo Versus Powerbooks
Will Palm Die Or Show Others How To Be Reborn?
Hey, SanDisk! Buy The Foleo IP From Palm!
Ed Colligan’s Worst Nightmare
Some Foleo on Flickr
New Disease: Post-Foleo Nightmare Syndrome
The Foleo Dispossessed
Quote Of The Day: Popular Mechanics
The Palm Foleo Disaster: Part Two
Quote Of The Day: Flashback To iPod Introduction
Blog Notes: Brain Fever
You Still Make Me Want To Bleed To Death
Foleo: The Beat Goes On…
Asus Eee: Increasing RAM Possible
The Palm Foleo Disaster: Part One
What Was Your ROS*, Palm?
Blog Notes: Yes, I’m Working On It!
Dumbass Of The Year: Ed Colligan
I’m So Bad, I’m Good
If We Can’t Have Momentum On This, Can I At Least Get An Amen, Brother?
Newsflash! Pictures Of Corpses Left In Wake Of iPhone Price Cut!
Palm Kills Foleo
OK, Now The Foleo Scares Me
Ugh. Backlogged. Still.
Poor Ed Colligan. Ascared Of Me.
Engadget Snags The Attention Of Autistic Palm, Inc.
Oh Look! I Get To Bash Palm And Nokia At The Same Time! It’s Two Two Two Hits In One!
Palm Flogs Blog, Flails, Fails
Failure Has A New Name
Record Blog Traffic: Apple iPhone Vs. Palm Foleo
Earth To Palm: Change The Foleo’s Browser To Safari
What Foleo 2.0 Needs
If FSJ Says It, Then It Is So!
Oh My God! What Did We Buy?!!?
Prediction: Palm To Drop All Handhelds
LifeDrive Notes: Should Palm’s Software Engineers Be Beaten With A Spiked Bat Or Tied Up Together And Dumped In The Ocean From 30,000 Feet?
Palm’s Flopeo, Uh, Foleo: Best Other Name For It
A Picture Of Two Tech Devices That Should Have Never Been Released
My Reaction To Palm’s New Foleo Device
On A Day When Palm Gets Everything Wrong, Apple Gets It Right