Palm today announced the Palm® Foleo(TM), its first smartphone companion product. The Foleo mobile companion has a large screen and full-size keyboard with which to view and edit email and office documents residing on a smartphone, in essence turning your smartphone into a full fledged laptop.

“Foleo is the most exciting product I have ever worked on,” said Jeff Hawkins, founder of Palm, Inc. and the visionary behind the Foleo’s concept and definition. “Smartphones will be the most prevalent personal computers on the planet, ultimately able to do everything that desktop computers can do. However, there are times when people need a large screen and full-size keyboard. As smartphones get smaller, this need increases. The Foleo completes the picture, creating a mobile-computing system that sets a new standard in simplicity.”

The Palm Foleo will work with Palms Treo Smartphones running Palm OS and Windows Mobile. Palm also says that device should work with other Windows Mobile devices with little or no modifications.

Primary Capabilities and Attributes of the Foleo Mobile Companion:
One-button access to full-screen email
Instant on, instant off
Rapid access to various applications
10-inch screen and full-size keyboard
Web search and browsing via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi
Editors for Word, Excel and PowerPoint, plus a PDF viewer
Compact, stylish design that fits on an airline tray table
Lightweight at 2.5 pounds
Fast, simple and intuitive navigation
5-hour battery life
Linux OS for easy application development