May 30 Roundup

Big news today is Palm's new Foleo thingy. I'm no rocket scientist and maybe this is just way too over my puny head, but I just don't understand who and where the market is for this mobile, thin-client, bigger than a device device. Am I the only one too stupid to figure it out? Is this a consumer play or enterprise? Or just something gadget geeks who need the latest thing will buy? As a consumer, do I really need this when I can get a more fully functional MacBook for the heavy stuff to complement my Windows Mobile smartphone for the light email and Internet access?

I'm guessing the enterprise is the target because that's where the money is, but will IT want to support it in lieu of or in addition to the ubiquitous notebooks for the mobile worker? Your guesses are as good as mine because at first glance I just can't see it happening. Then again, what do I know as I work in marketing...

Analysts in the news for May 30:

• Bill Hughes at In-Stat about Will the Apple iPhone Ignite the US Multimedia Phone Market?
• Michael Gartenberg at JupiterResearch about Palm Announces "Foleo" - First Take
• Michael Gartenberg at JupiterResearch about A Few More Foleo Details
• Tim Bajarin at Creative Strategies via PC Magazine about hands-On with the Palm Foleo
• Jake Saunders at ABI Research about Insight on Vodafone's Gameplan
• Sean Ryan at IDC about Adoption of Converged Mobile Devices by Enterprises Worldwide to Reach 82 Million Units by 2011
• Carmi Levy at Info-Tech Research Group via InformationWeek about Palm's Foleo Fails To Wow Followers
• William Choi at Jefferies & Co. and Piper Jaffray & Co.'s T. Michael Walkley via Bloomberg.com about Motorola to Shed 4,000 Jobs in Second Round of Cuts
• Todd Kort at Gartner and Jack Gold at J.Gold Associates via thestreet.com about Palm, New Device Out of Touch
• Jari Honko at eQ Bank Limited and Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi via BusinessWeek about Nokia's Do-Everything Phone
• ThinkEquity’s Jonathan Hoopes via Barron’s Online Tech Trader Daily about The Early Read On The Palm Foleo; ThinkEquity Upgrades To Buy