decoration denied a recent diligence story that its newFoleo mini - notebookwould be detain , and said the twist was still on prey to found in the U.S. “ this summer , ” or by the close of the third quarter .
The troupe was respond to a report suggest that germ in Foleo ’s software program will delay the launch of the machine from the goal of August to as recently as other October . The software program bug are forbid Foleo from right synchronizing data with Palm ’s Treo smartphone , according to a write up post Wednesday onBarron ’s Tech Trader Daily web log . The report was based on an earlier enquiry note by a Deutsche Bank analyst .
Palm unveiled Foleo in May , squall it a 2.5 - Irish punt “ smartphone companion . ” The gadget will initially only be able to synchronise up with Palm ’s own Treo smartphones . Foleo allows user to read their post documents more easily on its 10 - inch display than on a cramped smartphone concealment , and type e - post subject matter more well on its full keyboard than on a quarter round - operate keypad .
Palm insisted on Friday that it was still on racetrack to meet its original shipping schedule for Foleo .
“ As posit on May 30 , U.S. availability for the Palm Foleo mobile associate will begin this summer . We will permit you know if this changes , ” said Jim Christensen , Palm ’s director of communications .
Regardless of when Palm begins to sell the Foleo , any delays to the new product will not have a major impact on company earnings , one analyst pronounce .
“ This is a minor bug . If they ’re a year late , it ’s a problem , but if they ’re a couple months late , it ’s not going to make any difference — all their money ’s in the Treos , ” say Jack Gold , primary analyst at J.Gold Associates .
“ I ’d be more implicated if their new phones were later ; then we ’d be talking about ten of millions of dollar . But at best it ’s [ Foleo ’s ] going to be a slow tan for them ; this thing ’s not going to take off , ” order Gold .
Even strong sales of its Treo smartphone may not be enough for Palm . On June 28 , the ship’s company cover a profits of $ 15.4 million for the quaternary one-quarter , a 44 percent drop from its profit a year earlier .
In recent age , Palm has been shift its production portfolio away from personal digital assistants ( PDAs ) , a market it pioneered , and towards smartphones , which bid potentially much slap-up net profit margins because of their higher terms tag . The Foleo represent another step toward big , more expensive products . But industriousness skeptic are dubious about its prospects , saying that smartphone owners may be hesitant to carry a 2nd twist in their pocket , or to pay $ 499 for Foleo to make existing features easier to expend .
