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Sony Exits US Handheld Market
10999 writes "Today Brighthand reports that Sony will no longer develop and sell Clie handheld models to the United States market.
Most certainly that means no more Clies for Europe, too."
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Not enough clientele, I suppose?
Well, if they hadn't removed the Bluetooth from the TH-55, I'd have bought one. *sigh*
Now I have to wait for Palm to come up with something comparable.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
So long Sony, I won't miss the Clie because of what they did to me. I was happy to pay nearly $500 for a Clie NR70V, but when Sony lied to me and told me that one day I would be able to use a 1 gig memory stick with it, they lost me as a customer. I not only quit buying Sony PDAs, I didn't buy a Sony camera, opting for a Minolta with a standard SD card slot. Sony charged premium prices for some very nice models and they were making money on them until the memory stick debacle coupled with their crippled CF slot. I will be happy buying elsewhere from a company that keeps its promises to its customers. So don't let the Memory Stick hit you on the backside when you leave Sony!
This is the second "successful" handheld device I have seen cancelled recently -- I develop for handhelds, and we can't get the ones we've been getting (Thera) anymore. It should be no surprise that some shakedown of the myriad of devices out there would come to pass, but it does surprise me to see a company as large as Sony stop making anything.
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They mentioned several times that they want the PSP to be a multifunction device with PDA abilities, and a whole host of other abilities (MP3, Movies, GPS, etc) other than just being a dedicated game machine.
sony just didn't see the big picture, eventually the only PC people will have is a hand-held one, they could've made a killing if they just added a tv-out to their clie models, along with the ability to plug into regular size keyboards/mice, this way for the casual user, one who only reads emails, and checks news online, does reports in word, they could've provided a low-cost desktop alternative. b
For The Best Jazz/Hip-hop fusion > COlD DUCK
I chose my T665C over Palm branded hardware for a reason: So much more for the cash.
- Brilliant Color Screen
- MP3 Audio capabilities (via separate chip, which saves lots of power)
- Sound
- Small Size, light
- Great construction (alloy back)
- Pretty good package of software around it.
I've been very happy with it.
And shockingly, the nearest Palm equivilant didn't have anywhere near those specs. For more money, less of a product.
I'll miss the sony's in the market. Though I think Palm OS has caught up a bit.
In my recent visit to Japan, I saw loads of technology that isn't in the US yet. Why is this? Yes, I know that it is stuff that is manufacturered by Japanese companies and so it is natural that it should appear there first, but Japan seems to be the best stuff several years before the US. Is the USA not a good market for tech gadgets?
The miniature laptops I saw just rocked, and I can't believe they wouldn't sell in the US.
All of the handhelds that I have evaluated do not have a long enough battery life to be useful.
A full time radio connection (wifi is an example) requires significant power resources.
Handhelds don't have the power.
The small Sony laptops are more appropriate. They have a useable keyboard, and they almost fit in a jacket pocket
Peace
Their exit is extremely strange, but until we get more corroborating articles, I'm going to stick to that thought.
Let's keep in mind that patents are in place to keep lawyers employed and keep them litigating. -CatGrep
Do you see this as a clear sing, that Microsofts Pocket PC is slowly winning the PDA operating system war? Or is it just that Sony couldn't turn Palm OS in to the media OS it wanted? Or perhaps something else?
I recently ditched my Palm IIIxe for a Sony Ericsson T616. It isn't technically a "smartphone", but it still has a calendar, to do list, phone book (of course). And it syncs perfectly with iSync over bluetooth.
If you want to see the real future of Sony PDAs, look here.
Sony will continue to support all current customers worldwide for the life of the warranties on their handhelds.
Bear that in mind before you go hunting for a cheap Clie. If my Palm V, which is almost 6 years old, broke down I still could get it repaired by the manufacturer. But, with that wording, it's very much implied that after the warranty period has run out on the Clies sitting on retailers' shelves right now there will be little or no support from Sony for Clie owners. Caveat emptor.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
So, what is my SonyEricsson P900, chopped liver? Sure it's not a dedicated handheld, but I didn't want one. It does IR, Bluetooth, USB, Calendar, doesn't run Windows, etc.
Exiting the market, my ass! They're just going to focus on PDA/Phone unified devices.
-l
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The number of non-windows-based devices Sony has out on the market running different OSes is quite big, especially considering the user base. Ignoring the number of PS2's, look at Sony/Ericsson branded mobile phones. Now, add the upcoming PSP. There's no reason to own a "PDA" when either of these devices will be able to run circles around PalmOS devices.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The Clie' offered more power and features than a comparable Palm, though. Which is why I bought my T615C some time back. The same feature set in a Palm would have cost me another $50-$100. I think their designs started getting kinda funky and maybe turned off some people.
The next generation mobile phones are really what killed the PDA. If you have seen the high end phones some are PDA like (Sony Ericsson P900), and even the medium range now has very good organiser and synchronisation facilities. Combine that with Java expandability and there is not much need for PDAs for most people.
Sony takes this kitchen sink approach to their portables, which is why I think the first wave of iPod competitors will fail. They jammed every conceivable feature into their handhelds, completely forgetting that the appeal of PalmOS was to "keep it simple." Memory stick, camera, bluetooth, wifi, MP3 player, etc. They're expensive too, compared to other PalmOS devices.
The iPod competitor will fail if they release it in the US. It's too big, it'll cost too much, and basically it has too many features and buttons for the US market.
When you think about it, Sony's never been into the corporate market. They're all about multimedia and entertainment, hence the upcoming PSP media handheld. PDAs have their most functional benefits in business applications. I could defnitely see them taking their Clié R&D environment and redirecting it to the market they know best: entertainment.
From Palminfocenter's market share list
Worldwide Handheld Marketshare 2003
1. palmOne 40%
2. HP 22%
3. Sony 14%
4. Dell 6%
5. Toshiba 3%
6. All Others 15%
Best Selling SKUs (Oct - Dec 2003 US Retail)
Rank Model % of Total
1. palmOne Tungsten E 19%
2. Sony Clie SJ22 13%
3. palmOne Zire 21 10%
4. palmOne Zire 71 7%
5. HP iPaq 1945 (PPC) 6%
6. palmOne Zire 6%
7. Sony Clie TJ25 6%
8. palmOne Tungsten T3 4%
9. HP iPaq 2215 (PPC) 4%
10. palmOne Zire 21 Limited Ed Bundle 3%
It's not likely they were having Problems selling them, they were the number 2 PalmOS Based PDA seller, and The Number 3 Overall. They also had the number 2 and 7 best selling PDA.
Maybe they were expecting to sell more than this, or maybe most of those sales are outside the US.
In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
I use a Pocket PC (been using different ones for the past few years) but have always been impressed by Sony's innovations. If nothing else, they've provided solid competition for Microsoft. Now, it's essentially MS and a very dwindling Palm leading the PDA charge. So much for competition.
I bet the guy I rode the elevator up with this morning who was reading his new Clie instruction manual would've liked to know that yesterday.
That said, they weren't always the easiest company to work with. Often, the new models would come out so fast that we couldn't keep track of them, and a customer tech support email would be our first indication that something new was available. They had a tendency to keep certain APIs (like their camera API) private, and even their public APIs might be released to developers months after devices had shipped. I don't think a simulator for the TH55 was ever released.
But despite the problems, I'm sorry to see them go. Sony injected an energy into the Palm handheld market that I don't think can be matched by the other manufacturers.
--Stuart
Now my Sony conglomerate investment holdings are bound to SOAR. Or is that spelled SOUR?
i think the handheld pda as we have known it has really just been a tranistional device anyway. its purpose, as history may remember it, was to bridge the gap into more versatile devices such as what mobile phones are becoming (and have become already). the major features of newer pdas are wireless networking capabilities such as bluetooth, 802.11, etc. but what about the most well-established and well-known networking capability of them all---the telephone? now that's wireless. just use that.
of course i think it's rather sad to see such a well designed line of products come to an end (i personally have a sony clie), but surely sony is aware of the larger issues. the newest coolest thing they came out with was the UX-50, which when i first looked at it, i thought of it as a sub-sub-notebook. it just runs Palm OS and you can't upgrade any of the hardware. for the cost (US$600) you could easily get a bad-ass mobile phone that does all you'd need anyway---and it's a phone.
I purchased Sony's first palm-based handheld, the PEG-S300, not long after it came out. It was a competitor to the Palm V, as mentioned in the article, but cost a fraction. It was small, fast, had a hi-res screen, a jog dial, and came with a nice case that is still the best I've seen for a PDA. But the interface to the sync software was clearly rushed to market absolutely sucked.
Sucks that the competition is gone -- first Handspring, now Sony. At least Palm seems to have gotten their act together on the hardware side of things.
I'm a bit torn by this but overall this is a good thing. I have had many, many Sony PDAs over the years. I used an NX70V for a long time and really enjoyed it. However, as a developer, the Sony devices were a royal pain in the ass. The UI was painful to deal with. Their OS4 devices were a disaster, again, from the independent developer POV. They did move the ball forward though. They will be missed.
Even the article suggests that the trimming of the PDA field was not unexpected, given the flat sales. And the reason is made clear by talking to PDA shoppers or even looking at this thread: Everyone is fine with what they've got.
/. seem to be the same way. I love new tech just like anyone else, but it's a lot cheaper for me to play with the neat gizmos seperately, and not have my mishaps affect my PDA. Any other thoughts?
I'd be freaking lost without my PDA. I used a Palm 3 that I was given for a little while, then bought the Visor Deluxe when it came out, and used it until just recently. When it finally died (backlight failed) I dropped $90 on a Clie SJ-22. It's a great little PDA with a very bright white backlight that's on by default, 16meg memory, reads memory sticks, etc. I'll use it until it dies some horriffic death (hopefully in a few years) and get whatever is simple, cheap, highly-reviewed and well-supported.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is that people use these things primarily for their original purpose: to *organise things.* The vast majority of PDA users might *like* color screens, mp3 playback, cameras, etc. But when they get to talking about it, you soon understand that they still mostly just want it to keep their lives in order. It's interesting that even many one-percenters on
I own three MagicCap based PDAs. Two of them, the PIC-1000 and the PIC-2000A, were manufactured by Sony. Neither of them has been made or supported for many years.
The worrisome thing: after Sony bailed, pretty much everyone else using the MagicCap OS did too. Today, you can't get the OS at all anymore, and you can't even really get a dev environment for it. Hopefully, PalmOS can hang on.
If you convert the price in Yen to USD, many of these products would not sell in the US.
Japanese people are willing to pay a premium for small/lightweight products. Americans are not as willing. Throughout all of Asia/Pacific, people use a combination of mass transit and walking. When I visited Hong Kong, my colleagues were astounded at the 40lb. bag I carried -- a big IBM Thinkpad and every accessory that I might possibly need. Imagine a computer room in a bag. It was somewhat inconvenient to take this heavy computer bag in and out of cabs and the subway, but I did it. Months later, the same people visited me in the US. I said, "Now I can show you why my computer bag is not so crazy." We walked out of my office, down a flight of stairs, and 50 feet to my car, where I popped the trunk and dropped the bag right in. Size and weight of the computer are meaningless because I seldom carry it for more than 2 minutes at a time.
I won't attempt to speak for everyone, but I want gizmos with full features, durability, and low price. Size and weight are secondary. If I lived in Asia, my priorities would be different.
I've got an SJ-33, and I consider it one of the best peices of hardware I've ever had. It's great. Compliments the eMac perfectly. So I'm going to have to shop around for a new vendor now. The last time I looked at the Palms they were a bit fragile feeling..
I kinda saw this coming in the back of my mind though. Look at the last lineup, they've actually subtracted features (like the MP3 player) from the newer models that I consider to be in the same class as the SJ.
They've seemingly fixed that now with a good looking feature rich TJ37, but the 27's were sorta half-arsed.
And I knew something was terribly wrong with the whole line when I saw the UX50. That thing just defies everything about what makes PalmOS functional.
-- The unsig...
The PSP is going to be the Game Gear all over again. Size and battery life will kill it.
If Sony took down their Clie operations in order not to "compete with PSP," that only means in two years they'll be out two revenue streams.
Jon Acheson
All opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
It was stylish, being one of the very first true portables, drew lots of looks (almost nobody had one) - isn't that what mobiles should do - look at all the whiz bang bells and whistles they have now. And it was hackable via they keypad and the access codes.
Turn it on and dial, none of this boot OS advertise Verizon, think for a minute read the phonebook crap with these new fangled phones.
You could even use it for self defense, sure it cost over $2000 for the phone and the car adapter kit, but so what, you could look like Gordon Gekko.
And try writing your phone number down for a girl on your PDA (yeah I know it's slashdot, but some of you may attempt it), give me my post-its and my brick anyday.
I saw this story on Brighthand this morning and was about to submit it to slashdot, but I decided to check my facts first.
BargainPDA says "Sony has informed us that they will not release any new Clie PDAs this year in the US."
They had a conference call with Sony last week, and Sony made is abundantly clear that this is just a regrouping, they will NOT be exiting the market.
You can probably expect for Sony's next US model to be released with a bang. 'After an x-month hiatus, Sony has decided to revolutionize the PDA landscape again!' or something.
But again! SONY IS NOT EXITING THE MARKET! NOTHING TO SEE HERE! MOVE ALONG!
If this doesn't get me some karma, nothing will :-\
wait wait wait - you're on to something, but you're missing the A1 numero uno priority for Sony to do this. Let's follow the train of the latest news in portable hardware, shall we?
Sony wants to claim a huge stake in the handheld gaming market, and they know that the opening sales of the PSP will be pretty indicative of how the console will do down the line. Big launch will mean big boost in reputation, and then more third parties to develop for the PSP, more sales, yadda yadda.
However, this article points to a huge possible dent in all systems portable this year due to a tighter supply of LCD screens. the linked article talks about Nintendo, I know, but it still drives the point home: Sony has to prioritize its allocation of LCDs, and it has to do so ASAP.
Pretty big judgment call on Sony's part to give up a decent PDA marketshare in order to go full-force on the PSP. But, then again, considering how much $ they can pull not only with PSP sales, but also games, music and movies (many of which will come directly from Sony studios/records/etc), it seems like Sony has quite a forward-looking financial plan, and this move to re-allocate LCDs is proof positive of such forward-looking. Even if the additional movie/music stuff doesn't lift off in the States, Europe and Japan are ripe for such sales, so don't scoff at that notion too quickly.
this is clearly a response to the lcd shortage. the psp is expected to sell 3 million units worldwide by march 2005. all those screens have to come from somewhere. the playstation brand is way more important to sony then the clie. this is a bold move, and shows how much sony wants to succeed in the handheld gaming market.
I own a TJ-37, and it has been one the most useful items I've had for travel. An affordable device with a camera good enough to take pictures to post on the web and built-in wifi is a really amazing accomplishment. Plus with a decent sized memory stick the device doubles as an MP3 player as well.
I for one am sorry to see Sony exit the handheld market.
Overrated Moderation: This posts sucks... because.
There's still a significant market out there for people who don't want the do-everything phone. I bought a Clie TJ-25 because it is a great book reader, calendar, and electronic notepad. And it was cheap--I bought just the features I wanted (no MP3 player, camera, etc.)
It is a mistake to assume that everyone wants a phone-pda-camera-mp3 player-fm radio-refrigerator. (Well, not refrigerator.) Too much integration leads to unused features (==bloat) and wasted money. How many people buy Microsoft Office just to use Word? You'd be surprised.
Good try but the PSP specs called for an OLED - the Clies had no plan to move to OLED any time soon.
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
Why carry (and recharge every night) two pocket-size electronic devices when you can carry just a single one that does both?
Because a PDA should have a screen large enough to be useful. But that means that you may not want to carry it around all the time-- when you go on vacation, for example, or if you're just making a run to the convenience store for a twelve-pack. But of course you do want to carry your phone around all the time. Most phones right now will easily fit in a pants pocket unintrusively enough that you can jog or take a nap on a couch with them on your person. But a usably-sized PDA? Not really.
A headset? What if you're talking to someone about something and you need to pass the conversation for a moment to your friend, standing next to you? Much easier with a traditional form phone factor. What if you're backing up a full PDA and flash card and you want to make a phone call or go somewhere while you wait for the backup to complete?
What about battery life? Generally, you want your phone to be on all the time... but you don't want your PDA on unless you're using it, in order to maximize battery life. You've had a heavy day using your PDA at work and the battery is almost gone, but luckily work is almost over and you're going out with friends right afterward, you just need to call them to arrange a meeting place... d'oh! Battery dead, no phone all evening, unless you go home first and charge your PDA. Or feel free to reverse the scenario.
As usual, the integration of two devices means significant compromises for both.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW