Sony Clie back running PocketPC ?!

[Colin Dunstan]

This one is interesting, straight from Engadget:

"Sony execs, who always make the right decision about everything, are thinking about bringing the Clie back to the States, only this time running on the Pocket PC or Symbian operating systems. Not entirely impossible, but with the overall market for PDAs flat (and/or shrinking depend on who you ask) it seems like if they’re gonna get back into the game it’d be with some kind of high-end Sony smartphone (which would make sense if they’re considering the Symbian OS, though how they’d avoid directly competing with Sony Ericsson is beyond us) or maybe some kind of multimedia handheld like the ones HP is currently pimping."

In fact, I am convinced that Sony Ericsson is already squinting at Symbian. It is the currently best OS which offers PDA-capability to mobile phones. On the other hand, I don't think that Sony is really thinking about turning their infamous Clie series into Pocket PCs. Think about the immense R&D expenses this step would require. And from my understanding, Sony abandoned the Clie because it didn't want to compete against its most profitable business unit, Sony Ericsson.

[sUnShInE]

I don't know nuttin about electronics themselves, but I wonder if any physical modifications would need to take place or if current Clie model users could just wipe and load whatever OS (eg Symbian no doubt).

Interesting article Morpheus!

[Bob Russell]

Originally Posted by sUnShInE

I don't know nuttin about electronics themselves, but I wonder if any physical modifications would need to take place or if current Clie model users could just wipe and load whatever OS (eg Symbian no doubt).

Interesting article Morpheus!

That topic is something I was wondering about also. My question was whether or not PalmSource could modify PalmOS to run on the upcoming "handtops" (the handheld Windows XP machines). It would be incredible hardware, even if a little expensive. And a dual boot would give you both the benefits of a PDA and a laptop all together. I suppose you could run a Palm simulator, but that's not just the same, and it still has to boot up. I don't know how many people other than me would be interested, but I like the idea.

I know there are people that are running Linux on some of the ipaq PDAs. So I guess that sort of thing is probably possible, but takes a whole lot of work and to make the conversion it a product that the average user can use might be even tougher.

Besides, aren't PalmOS and Linux (and even WinCE) better than Symbian anyway?

[Alexander Turcic]

Originally Posted by BobR

Besides, aren't PalmOS and Linux (and even WinCE) better than Symbian anyway?

I think they are, but for some strange reason neither ever made it to main-stream cell phones. At least for PalmOS and WinCE, perhaps licensing costs is the prohibiting factor?

[sUnShInE]

Nodding furiously: Symbian sucks.

Like everything else, the mfg's are just figuring out the marketplace. If I were a mfg or a service vendor, I'd really start pouring through sites like this to find out what people want.

[gadgetguru]

It would be stupid for Sony to ditch Palm for Pocket PC at this point in time. Sony, traditionally had not been strong in Enterprise sales - an area that Pocket PC is on par or leading Palm OS in terms of deployment. In consumer sales, where Sony is strong, Palm OS leads though not by the margin of yesteryears. So if Sony is to continue or revive selling PDAs, it's best to play your strong suit, isn't it?

Sony also has less competition on the Palm OS side than with Pocket PC where there are dime-a-dozen OEM manufacturers. The only reason that I could think of for Sony to jump ship is that they are disaapointed by Palm OS 6, but that's plain speculations since we have not seem it yet.

[cbarnett]

I don't see Sony seriously trying to penetrate the PPC market. HP, Dell, Toshiba and Asus, just to mention a few, dominate the current market with a wide range of models. Sony would have to be able to pull a rabbit out of the hat and create a feature rich, _cheap_ PDA to hope to compete (and forget about those memory stick thingies )

Craig.

[Brian]

I highly doubt Sony would license WM2003SE/PPC from Microsoft. Microsoft decided to take on Sony's dominance in the game console market, aiming the XBox squarely at the PS2.

The console wars are about to get even more heated with MS's "neXtBox" battling the PS2/PS3 for dominance of the home "digital hub". These new consoles will be convergence devices delivering gaming, movies, etc; to put it simply, paid content.

This battle will also be over formats and standards; Sony with the Blu-Ray DVD & UMD and Microsoft with WindowsMediaPlayer.

Sony is coming out with the PSP, the portable counterpart to the PS2/PS3 digital hub. Why in the world would they market a portable device that would help support Microsoft's formats?

IMO Sony killed the Clie line because they couldn't fully control the OS and therefore the content (games, music, movie, etc), allowing non Sony and non DRM content to be played through other Palm OS applications on the Clie. Sony is pushing paid content in a big way with the Connect Music Store and they have plans to deliver movies and TV shows through a download service.

The PSP will fit with this paid content model for Sony with strict DRM for all of Sony's content.The Clie didn't fit well in this new paid content strategy and a PPC powered Clie most certainly wouldn't.

Edit:
Some good background info on Sony's paid content plans @ http://www.paidcontent.org/pc/arch/cat_sony.shtml