Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM), the dazed and confused mobile smartphone manufacturer, released Q2 numbers yesterday after the market's close, showing an expected loss for its most recent quarter. The company saw a $9.63 million loss ($0.09 per share) on quarterly revenues of just over $349 million as smartphone competitors, higher than expected warranty costs and shipping delays all influenced the company's performance. In the year-ago quarter, Palm made a net profit of $12.77 million on just over $392 in revenue.

And it gets worse, as Palm gave dismal guidance for the quarter in progress. The once-giant handheld PDA company admitted to seeing losses in the range of $30 million ($0.31 per share) for the current quarter on revenue expectations of $310 million to $320 million. Investors understandably did not like what they heard, driving down Palm's share price from Tuesday's close of $5.93 to $5.35 in after-hours trading.

What's next for Palm? After starting to sell the lower-price Palm Centro (a $99 smartphone) in its Q2 period and canceling the Foleo miniature notebook portable computer (if that's what it was), the company's CEO, Ed Colligan, has some shoring up to do or he'll be skating on thin ice in 2008. Wait, he already is. Stating that "It's a transformational time so things could be a bit lumpy, but we'll do our best to manage through that," Colligan must make some radical moves in 2008 or be shown the door. Investors aren't patient when it comes to one disappointing quarter after another in an industry expected to continue growth for the next several years.

I like to call them "superphones" but the industry phrase is "smart phones," and the best of the bunch still exist in our collective imagination and in sparkling light-on-black press photos on the internet: the Apple iPhone (due out June 29), the LG Prada ("late summer") and the Foleo, a companion to the Palm Treo (more "late summer").

While many of the details are known, of course, I haven't actually touched any of these superphones. But that's part of the deliciousness. I can already tell you which one I want to have in my big purple knitted bag immediately (the iPhone) and which I'm fine admiring from afar, and on the cover of US Magazine (LG Prada) and which I might only buy if I was far more idle and in possession of way more disposable income than I now have (Palm Foleo).

When Palm Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) announced its new Foleo (with a little horizontal line over the "e") at the D conference last week, we all let out a collective, huh? It's not that the Foleo isn't cool -- it is, a little -- or useful -- a bit. But the Foleo, which will be available sometime this summer, has way to many huh moments.

Here's a rundown:

What is it? The Foleo is, essentially, a laptop extension for your Palm Treo. It's based on open-source Linux software (score one cool point), and as such, software is easy to build for it, and it will operate much faster than your actual laptop. Instead of opening and waiting for the usual several minutes of start-up-and-warm-up-and-log-in, the thing just turns on, instantly, and presto! e-mail. (Score another cool point, and a usefulness point.) It's small, it has a keyboard and a couple of ports (headphone jack, USB port, etc), but doesn't require plugging into your Treo (score one usefulness point).

How much? The Foleo is $599 with a $100 mail-in rebate, which (let's be honest) most consumers won't jump through the hoops necessary to reclaim. $599. You also must have a Treo already, ranging from $49 to $699 depending on the version and service plan you sign up for at time of purchase, for a total of at least $649.

When Engadget reported this morning that Palm's big announcement wasn't a new superphone, but a "Foleo" that basically hooks up to your Treo or other smartphone, with a full-size keyboard and a Linux OS, I said, "really? No, not really, right?" But it's true, as Engadget is reporting ahead of the press webcast at 11:30 Pacific time.

Here's the pitch: You love your Palm, but you wish, oh how you wish, you could just turn it into a laptop during those long flights -- to edit the PowerPoint sent to you by your junior associate, to have more room to type, to be able to see the details on that photo sent to you by your spouse of your cuter-than-cute little child. The Foleo will do that, essentially plugging into your Treo (or iPhone! really! [update: umm, maybe. "If Apple opens up their system."]) so you don't have to take your laptop anywhere. Life without a laptop? Maybe you can't see it now, but Jeff Hawkins is here with, essentially, an infomercial telling you why you should see it... this summer, when it will be available for $499.

Palm Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) founder Jeff Hawkins hosts a webcast blogged below.

11:32 a.m. Jeff Hawkins takes the mic, and immediately I'm transported into what seems like a very tech-savvy pitch at a business plan competition. I was planning to liveblog the conference call, but I'll just give you the highlights as I don't think I can stomach transcribing an infomercial. He begins by displaying the Foleo (there's a little bar over the "e"), and saying that there are millions of people who use e-mail in the world and you want to let them all have laptops... huh? This laptop extension for your Palm is $499, plus the cost of your Palm and the service... this isn't helping third-world kids connect digitally with their penpals in U.S. suburbs.