Palm’s Spinning Prototype: The Roteo?

Yeah, Palm (NSDQ: PALM) was going out on a limb with the Foleo, but clearly they haven’t lost their taste for experimentation. This rotating handset supposedly dubbed Roteo could be coming in 2009 from Palm, complete with what looks like a trackpad and two soft keys, a front-facing video camera, and a full QWERTY keypad. Folks are presuming it will run Windows Mobile, but it’s pretty hard to tell at this point. Before we start bashing the Roteo liberally, the Sidekick has gone to show that people dig the spinning thing, and with a bit of work this one might appeal to smartphone users outside the chatty teenage girl demographic. It’s a nice change of pace from the usual slider layout, but even regardless of design, it’ll be a hard sell with such stiff competition.

[via Pocketables]