Treo/Foleo v. iPhone/iTunes
Ok, it’s been awhile and I’ve been going through some iPhone posting withdrawal so I thought I’d post this little train of thought I was having. I mean, with all the analysts breathlessly one-up’ing each other with their number sold the first weekend (the highest I’ve seen is now 700,000, do I hear a million??) can you blame me for having iPhone’s on the brain?
So anyway, Palm’s got this whole Foleo thing happening (I know I’ve talked a lot about the Foleo before) where they’re touting the Foleo as this revolutionary new mobile phone companion that has some tight integration with the Treo (or any supported smart phone). But the iPhone has some pretty hardcore sync’ing, too. I wondered about what the tradeoffs were between running the Foleo and any laptop with iTunes attached.
So, one key thing that the Foleo provides is instant on - standard laptops simply don’t have that and the Foleo wins that hands down. Instant on is a great feature, one I wish standard laptops would get with, even waking up from standby can be annoying.
Also, dial-up networking (dun). Apparently unlocked Treo’s support this, but carrier provided Treo’s block this feature. So, the only way to get this is to pay full price for the phone or else buy a subsidized one and jump through all the crazy hoops you need to jump through to enable this feature. Still, this is something that the iPhone currently can not do - although it is just a software update away from it. I wonder if AT&T will ever allow it? Foleo wins here.
Foleo touts it’s pricing as well, although this starts to be a little more arguable. Since the Foleo is designed as a companion not a replacement for a laptop - actually the price of the Foleo is additional to the price of your regular laptop. Even Palm suggests that you’d probably have a main laptop as well as the Foleo. I don’t know how to rate this, I’ll call it a draw.
The Foleo’s size is good, but you can get a sub-notebook that is the same form factor (plus or minus - personally I”d like to have seen the Foleo clock in at less than 2 pounds - it’s functionality is so stripped, it’d be nice to see the weight stripped down as well). Again, this is a draw.
In terms of general functionality a regular laptop wins. It is a full on computer with access to the actual applications you use to get your work done. You can run a real web browser like Firefox and edit your documents using Microsoft Office (or whatever office programs you use). The Foleo doesn’t have anything on this.
The Foleo has fancy syncing of all your main phone app data, email, contacts, etc… But so does iPhone and iTunes. The Foleo’s syncing is fancier - it has some kind of live sync action where it’s just happening as you go. But who really cares? It isn’t tough to sync and on an iPhone, again, you’re syncing with your real applications, calendar or outlook or entourage. You also sync more, since iTunes syncs your music, photos and even your bookmarks.
With the Foleo/Treo/Desktop situation all your Treo information is still kind of segregated, sure the Foleo acts like an extension of your Treo, but you still have the crappy Treo desktop sync which tries, sometimes, to get things into and out of your desktop apps. Palm would have served everyone better by building a super fancy desktop sync that gave Foleo like capabilities to your actual computer. That is, more or less, what the iPhone and iTunes seems to do.
I mean, mail sync? If you use any type of IMAP, POP or exchange, all your mail on all your devices is automaticallly sync’d. Who cares if it has extra cool syncing with your Treo?
I think that a subnotebook and iPhone is a better, if more expensive, version of the Foleo, unless you absolutely require DUN, your treo supports DUN and wi-fi just won’t give you the coverage you need. iPhone/iTunes gives you a lot more functionality with little downside except for price.
July 3rd, 2007 at 11:24 am
Standard laptops don’t have instant on? You mean PC and Linux laptops? Cause last I checked my MBP has always been on and ready to go when I finish raising the lid. And that’s pretty much been the case ever since OS X took over. Sure, even the Mac sleep mode isn’t as energy efficient as being completely off but it’s still way waaaay better than the farce that Microsoft calls “hibernation”.
Oh, and price for many isn’t exactly a “little” downside. =)
July 3rd, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Well, the problem is that if you leave your laptop in standby mode all day - it still uses juice, so that by the evening it’s often low or out of batteries, even if it hasn’t been used. At least that’s been my experience. As I understand it, the Foleo doesn’t suffer from this problem.
As for price, it all depends. If someone is buying a treo as well as an unlimited data plan I generally suppose that they can shell out a little more money for something more full featured. Beyond that, they need a computer/laptop anyway - so to some degree they already have this.