Palm has decided to axe the Foleo mobile companion product on the eve of shipping. The company said that, with Foleo based on a second platform and separate development environment, it wanted to focus its efforts one platform only.
Writing on the Palm blog, CEO Ed Colligan said that it had become clear over the past months that running a different platform would have casued a "lack of focus".
"I have decided to cancel the Foleo mobile companion in its current configuration and focus all our energies on delivering our next-generation platform and the first smartphones that will bring this platform to market. We will, of course, continue to develop products in partnership with Microsoft on the Windows Mobile platform, but from our internal platform development perspective, we will focus on only one."
The Foleo, based on software from Wind River, was to be a sub-notebook computer with full-sized keyboard and 10inch display. However, with a distinctly different platform to the Linux-powered Treo, software would not have been certified for the Foleo.
Designed by Palm founder, Jeff Hawkins, Foleo was scheduled for imminent release, and its withdrawal is expected to cost the company close to $10 million.