Sony Drops Clie
Print storyPalms off PDA line
Posted in Mobile, 23rd February 2005 17:03 GMT
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Sony has called time on its dalliance with the PDA market, with the announcement that it will no longer sell its Clie range in Japan.
According to the AP, a Sony spokesman confirmed the firm will stop selling the Clie in the country from July. The electronics giant had dropped the PalmOS-powered device in the rest of the world last year.
Sony’s move will further stoke concerns that the PDA sector faces terminal squeezing by mobile phones and other digital devices.
While Sony may be smarting from its retreat from a market it entered in 2000, the move will presumably cause more hand wringing at PalmSource, which controls the PalmOS. Sony was, arguably, its highest profile licensee.
PalmSource was born out of Palm, together with hardware vendor PalmOne. According to Gartner, the PalmOS’s share of PDA shipments slipped from 50% in 2003 to 36% in 2004.
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