Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/19/sharp_drops_sl-6000/
Sharp pulls Linux Wi-Fi PDA out of US
Withdrawing to retrench in Japanese market
Posted in Mobile, 19th October 2004 08:59 GMT
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Sharp has confirmed reports received by The Register that the company has dropped its Zaurus Linux-based PDA in the US market.
According to our sources, Sharp USA canned the SL-6000 in the US at the end of September, dropping the device's developer support website.
A Sharp spokesman yesterday confirmed the decision, InfoSync World reports (http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/5438.html). Sharp will continue to sell the Zaurus line in Japan. The company killed Zaurus support in Europe (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/07/11/sharp_cans_linux_pda/) in 2003. Indeed, the SL-6000 was never officially sold over here.
Sharp's move to focus solely on the Japanese market mirrors similar retrenching operations made by Sony and Toshiba. Sharp last week announced (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/15/linux_4gb_hdd_pda/) a new clamshell Zaurus - one of the first PDAs with an integrated hard drive - for the Japanese market.
Having launched the SL-6000 in Japan in October 2003, Sharp began shipping (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/02/sharp_ships_linux_wifi_pda/) the PDA in the US in April 2004, allowing the device only five months to build up an audience. ®
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