Palm Foleo = Secret Third Business?
[From Brian] Hello Sammy, With all of the recent discussion about the leak of a Palm Sherlock in Sprint's product roadmap and past revelations about Palm's "Secret Third Business", I did a little bit of online reading and reflection about where Palm might be taking us with an information-centric device.
I'd like to point out that to the best of my USPTO searching, Palm does not own the trademark Sherlock, so it is likely that the name Sherlock is a codename along the lines of Hollywood, Lowrider, etc.
Along these lines, I would like to point out an active trademark that Palm holds, Foleo (Serial #78555579). I'll quote the summary and highlight some portions that I think suggest that it is related to Palm's "Secret Third Business":
Apparatus for recording, transmission or reproduction of sound or images; computer hardware and peripherals and manuals sold therewith; computer hardware and embedded software for use in accessing storing, managing, synchronizing, transferring, transporting and sharing digital information and files over the global communications network and other networks and/or between computers, electronic organizers, electronic notepads, mobile telephones and pagers, PIMs, PDAs and mobile computing and communications devices; computer laptops and mobile computers; computer monitors; computer keyboards; computer software for use in accessing, storing, managing, synchronizing, transferring, transporting and sharing music, photos, videos, address books, calendars, e-mail, PIM data, PDA data, office and personal documents, streamed and multimedia information and files over the global communications network and other networks and/or between computers, electronic organizers, mobile telephones and pagers, PIMs, PDAs and mobile computing and communications devices; computer software for synchronization of data, information and files, for mobile communications and computing, for personal information management, database management and synchronization, for character recognition, and for secure data access, storage and transfer; computer software for web publishing, providing alerts to various informational and environmental conditions , for accessing, browsing and searching online databases, for data and file backup and storage, and for duplicate file management across multiple devices ; telephony management software; electronic mail and messaging software, paging software, and manuals provided therewith
1. "storing, managing, synchronizing, transferring, transporting and sharing digital information and files over the global communications network and other networks" and "streamed and multimedia information and files over the global communications network and other networks" indicate that this trademark is related to devices and services that use global and other communications networks, fitting in with Hawkins' and Colligan's statements about the implications of having a broadband connection in your pocket and delivering compelling services to Palm's users over such a connection.
Jeff Hawkins in his Portland Business Journal interview:
Q: Can you give me a better idea about what this "child" technology is?
A: Not really. I'll give you a couple clues. I always think of mobile computing as personal computing. This long-term vision has led us through everything -- first the organizers and now through the smart phone space. It's like everything a personal computer is. Continue down that path. What are the implications of a world where everyone has a super high-speed Internet connection in their pocket and many gigabytes of storage, super-fast processors, audio, visual and multimedia? What are the consequences of that? How will that change computing when you have all that stuff available to you all the time? I try to think into the future. That's how we come up with new products. So I'm not going to tell you what it is, but it's following the consequences of mobile computing.
Ed Colligan at the Churchill Club Breakfast:
They (users) have a high-speed connection...to their pocket...Boy, is there things we can deliver to them, and is there compelling experiences that we can deliver to them, that are going to help us differentiate our products? I think there are, and we're working on things like that.
2. "providing alerts to various informational and environmental conditions" - More services, but this also hints at possible context and locations based services that provide alerts.
Ed Colligan at the Churchill Club Breakfast when asked about GPS-enabled handhelds:
That's one of them, no question....And the usage, that's going to be one of the really interesting discovery points of new usage and how do I use the fact that I know where I am... that other things know where I am, or other systems know where I am and that I opt-in to let them know where I am?
So that's why I think Foleo is related to the "secret third business". What about the name Foleo?
Foleo, is a play on the word folio:
A large sheet of paper folded once in the middle, making two leaves or four pages of a book or manuscript.
A book or manuscript of the largest common size, usually about 38 centimeters (15 inches) in height, consisting of such folded sheets.
A leaf of a book numbered only on the front side.
A number on such a leaf.
A page number.
Accounting. A page in a ledger or two facing pages that are assigned a single number.
Law. A specific number of words used as a unit for measuring the length of the text of a document.
Emphasis in bold is mine.
I'd submit that the way Foleo is spelled, similar to Treo (both ending with eo), fits in with Palm's branding and product naming. This name could hint at the device's capabililties, size, and form factor. A folio suggests a book or manuscript that folds. Palm has these two patents on folding devices and displays:
Compact palmtop computer system and wireless telephone with foldable dual-sided display
Non-rigid mounting of a foldable display
What could this all add up to?
1. A folding device with multiple displays (two or more).
2. Such a device is used as a "folio"; a book, notepad, manuscript, diary, journal, encyclopedia, etc.
3. Wireless services for storage, syncing, streaming of data across the web and multiple devices, including secure data storage and access, and streaming multimedia.
4. Context and location aware services with alert notifications.
5. Services for searching and accessing online databases.
This would be an information-centric device. But with wireless connectivity (WiFi and 3G), it could also be a communications device (Voice over Wireless Local Area Network hybrid?) and a pretty decent entertainment device with a good sized screen for streaming video and other multimedia.
I'd also add that this reminded me of Michael Mace's Info Pad concept, and he has been making a case for a more information-centric device. Thanks to this post at Michael's great blog, we can be pretty certain that, whatever Palm's secret project ends up being, it is coming soon. Will it be called the Palm Foleo?
Discuss Brian's editorial in this thread on the forum.
