It’s true.  Every manufacturer of netbooks, from HP to Asus should be sending a big Thank You basket over to Palm’s offices.  I’m sure they could use the encouragement.

In May 2007, Palm announce the Foleo.  Many people in the blogsphere called it the “Fool-eo.”  The idea was pretty simple: people love their Palm devices, but wanted a larger screen to take full advantage of the office centric applications without lugging around an actual notebook.  The Foleo would fill that need by acting as an in between device, specifically for road warrior who frequently travel.  It was light, the battery was meant to run for very long and it was cheap, relative to the pricing of most ultraportable notebooks.

The original Foleo was to have a 10″ screen, cost under $500, and use a special flavor of Linux.  Sound familiar?

In what may be the biggest story never told, companies all over the world noticed what Palm created and the backlash that happened as a result.  Instead of going the same route they decided to focus away from pairing it with a phone and allowing it to be a full-featured mini-notebook.

Sadly, this is another tale of Palm being innovate to the point of ridicule only to have products come out latest leverage the same ideas they used.  As millions of netbooks get shipped all around the world, it’s important to realize where it all started.

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