Redfly ressurrects the Foleo

Smartphone companion device to launch

2 January 2008 10:12 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Remember Palm's Foleo, the 10-inch sub-laptop device, that was supposedly "the perfect companion for your smartphone" but unceremoniously dumped by the company before launch?

The concept is being ressurrected by Redfly and is due to be officially debuted at CES.

It's coming to us as the REDFLY Smartphone Interface System that will offer the platform for REDFLY "Mobile Companions" licenced devices and will work with all Windows Mobile smartphones.

Smaller than the Foleo, the Mobile Companion prototype is an 8-inch laptop with a keyboard and touchpad, weighs 1.9 pounds, measures 9 x 6 x 1 inches, apparently will have an 8-hour battery life and will cost $499.

You can use the companion to "wirelessly extend the smartphone to a larger display, full keyboard, mouse and USB ports".

So it piggybacks your phone's connectivty and lets you work on a larger device, basically, just like Palm's doomed effort.

It still seems a highly specialised concept, but with the REDFLY Smartphone Interface System compatible with Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC and Smartphone editions and Windows Mobile 6 Professional and Standard Editions, the market scope is better than Palm's more narrow remit.