Tuesday, June 1, 2004
Sony's Clie Line Is Leaving The US
Posted by Ed Hansberry in "THE COMPETITION" @ 07:00 AM
http://www.bargainpda.com/default.asp?newsID=2082
The rumors we mentioned last week of Sony abandoning the Clie line and PDA market are getting clearer. Sony will leave the US PDA market for now. The Clie line will continue in Japan though. Bargain PDA has more info.
"Sony has informed us that they will not release any new Clie PDAs this year in the US. The Clie line will continue in Japan though. This move is of course devastating for a number of reasons. We have all the details along with five different takes on what this move means to the PDA world. We had a conference call with Sony last week to discuss what we thought was going to be about the new Clie releases, hopefully something with OS 6. Much to our chagrin, Sony started by reading a very brief statement that clearly indicated their intent to vacate the PDA space in the US for at least the remainder of this year."
Bargain PDA also feels this will shift the balance to Microsoft and its OEM partners. "But the issues here are much more severe than Sony deciding to step away for a breather. palmOne is now stuck in a very precarious position. They’re now much like the Apple of the computing world - the only major licensee of the Palm OS. Sure there are dozens of other licensees, but combined, they don’t have the visibility or sales of Sony. The exit by Sony will certainly mean a shift in the balance of power to Microsoft. The race between Palm OS and Windows Mobile was so close already, there’s no other reasonable outcome. Surely palmOne will scoop up plenty of prospective Sony buyers, but it’s impossible to capture all of them. With Dell releasing the new X30’s at such an amazing price and HP coming out with 7 new PDAs in the next several weeks, Microsoft has to be feeling very good about their place in this market. This shift could end up hurting palmOne badly, if their next round of releases doesn’t keep pace with their past few."
What do you think this means for the Palm OS and overall PDA market?
The rumors we mentioned last week of Sony abandoning the Clie line and PDA market are getting clearer. Sony will leave the US PDA market for now. The Clie line will continue in Japan though. Bargain PDA has more info.
"Sony has informed us that they will not release any new Clie PDAs this year in the US. The Clie line will continue in Japan though. This move is of course devastating for a number of reasons. We have all the details along with five different takes on what this move means to the PDA world. We had a conference call with Sony last week to discuss what we thought was going to be about the new Clie releases, hopefully something with OS 6. Much to our chagrin, Sony started by reading a very brief statement that clearly indicated their intent to vacate the PDA space in the US for at least the remainder of this year."
Bargain PDA also feels this will shift the balance to Microsoft and its OEM partners. "But the issues here are much more severe than Sony deciding to step away for a breather. palmOne is now stuck in a very precarious position. They’re now much like the Apple of the computing world - the only major licensee of the Palm OS. Sure there are dozens of other licensees, but combined, they don’t have the visibility or sales of Sony. The exit by Sony will certainly mean a shift in the balance of power to Microsoft. The race between Palm OS and Windows Mobile was so close already, there’s no other reasonable outcome. Surely palmOne will scoop up plenty of prospective Sony buyers, but it’s impossible to capture all of them. With Dell releasing the new X30’s at such an amazing price and HP coming out with 7 new PDAs in the next several weeks, Microsoft has to be feeling very good about their place in this market. This shift could end up hurting palmOne badly, if their next round of releases doesn’t keep pace with their past few."
What do you think this means for the Palm OS and overall PDA market?
