Sony said Wednesday that it would stop making personal digital assistants for Japan in July, completing its withdrawal from a market hit by multifunctional cell phones and casting a shadow over the tools' growth potential.
The move was widely expected after the electronics and entertainment conglomerate said last year it would stop selling new handheld digital assistants outside Japan, striking a blow to PalmSource, whose software powers the devices.
"The PDA market is being encroached by cell phones and other mobile devices that can offer similar functions, making it difficult for PDAs to maintain their position in the market," a Sony representative said.
As devices that largely specialize in organizing schedules, PDAs have come under heavy pricing pressure, she added.
Sony was the largest PDA maker in the domestic market in 2003, with a 32.1 percent share by unit shipments, followed by Sharp's 19.5 percent and Casio's 16.4 percent, according to research company Gartner.
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Feb 23, 2005, 01:46 PM
