Sony?s Clie returning from the dead as a Pocket PC?

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desiree.antoinette

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Source: http://www.gigaom.com/2004/08/a_pocketpc_clie.php

Could it be true? A Clie powered by Microsoft's Pocket PC sometime in the near future? It is popularly held belief that Sony scrapped its Clie plans for US because of the slowdown in the PDA market. But those familiar with the company say it was because Sony was worried about the direction Palm was taking with its products. They were worried about Pocket PC and its traction in the PDA business, while Symbian OS grew more popular with the smartphone set. It was a decision which was met with a lot of disappointment from Clie fans, because most believe that Sony was really pushing the multimedia-edge on the Palm platform. While Sony sells Clie in Japan, it is not a big thrust anywhere else. But does that mean Sony is done with handhelds? Not entirely. Company executives have been recently heard contemplating return to the business using either Pocket PC or Symbian OS. Given the multimedia features of Pocket PC, as shown by some of the PDAs from HP, it would not be a surprise if you see a Clie with Pocket PC. "We're watching closely to see how PocketPC develops, and also how the Symbian world unfolds," a Sony exec was recently overheard as saying.
 
this makes no sense to me...Palm OS still has ~50% of the PDA market AFAIK...why would Sony want to completely retool just to get themselves back in the same situation....??
 
Cobalt has everyone worried. I hope PalmSource develops Cobalt as an open highly configurable OS but from what I've read, it may be less configurable than OS5.
 
My gut says that Palm will be moving out the "classic" PDA market such as the T3. They will continue to support "low" end models such as the Zire.

I suspect Palm believes the future is in multi-function cell phones and obtaining as many licenses as possible.

Just a hunch....
-KimH
 
I agree. It appears that PalmSource is focusing on smart phones with Cobalt. Maybe Sony has no desire to compete in that arena so they're looking at pocket pc.

It's too bad because the TH55 had the potential to spawn a successor that could have been an absolute killer PDA.

ed-
 
I'm guessing not. Sony already has a Symbian smartphone in the SonyEricsson P910 - which is the third generation of a pretty successful line.

Ditching PalmOS was inevitable once it became obvious that smartphones were outselling PDAs. Chances are the fourth generation SonyEricsson will be a lot more Sony and a lot less Ericsson.

Toshiba failed to conquer the iPaq, why would Sony think they could succeed when they couldn't gun down Palm (despite making superior machines for the greater amount of time).
 
Recently heard? By whom, a restroom attendant? They already have Symbian OS phones that have all the PDA features you could want. One of the reasons they pulled out of the Palm OS was their agreement with Symbian prohibited them from developing smartphones with any OS but Symbian. Sony has already decided that the PDA market was going nowhere. It won't go any further with the PPC OS.
 
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