Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
There are just too many minuses associated with the recently unveiled Palm Foleo "smartphone companion" to make this product a success. However, there are just enough pluses to have some analysts scratching their heads and wondering "is there something just a little bit innovative here that may point to the future of mobile computing?"
Anyone who has had to lug an overweight,
overpriced, feature bloated, power hungry notebook computer around and
continually unbag them for airport security would agree that convenient
mobile computing is a problem crying out for a solution. The
under-powered, overpriced and still overweight Palm Foleo doesn't even
come close to providing a solution but it is on the right track.
As Bill Gates has pointed out, smartphones like the Palm Treo, the RIM
Blackberry, the Nokia N95 and the Apple iPhone are the future of mobile
computing. They have all the power, connectivity, battery longevity and
portablility that anyone on the road could possibly want. What they
don't provide is convenient input and viewing or acceptable local
storage.
That's the problem that the Foleo installed with a Linux operating
system tries to solve. However, the Foleo fails because when it comes
down to it, at more than 1Kg and roughly the same form factor as an
ultra portable computer, it really is just another notebook with much
less functionality.
What's more, the Foleo really has been designed with one specific
product in mind - the Palm Treo. This really does not make sense. Does
Palm really believe that bringing a "smartphone companion" to market
that ignores the Blackberry, Nokia N95, other popular smartphones and,
at best, will get a subset of the Treo market is a viable business
model?
Despite all of its negatives, however, what the Foleo does do is
highlight the issue that smartphones do need companions if they are to
become the portable computers of the future.
The power possessed by today's smartphones eclipses the notebooks of
the past - they really are computers. With gigabytes of USB flash RAM
now available for peanuts and Bluetooth connectivity, all that's needed
for a total solution are truly portable compatible keyboards and
displays. These are the real companions that smartphones need, not an
underpowered notebook.
David Bass
| For the fourth year in a row, IDC has placed content security provider Websense (NASDAQ: WBSN) at the top of the IDC Worldwide Web Security 2011 –…
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