Comments on: Opinion: Sony to US Market: Sayonara?

I think the article is right. We should at least consider the beginning of the end of Sony palms here in the States. I mean, those actions to hint at a closing curtain...

I just hope the m505 will release with a higher resolution. That'd be sweet.

Eric

It seems to me that the three reasons you give that the new Clie will never come to the US are essentially reasons that they never should have built the PEG700 in the first place - but they did build it. It's out there, and it will already be in competition with the new Palms in Japan, so arguing that they won't bring it to the US because they don't want to compete with Palm doesn't make much sense.

The memory stick argument seems strange - first of all, they aren't committed to the memory stick standard, they ARE the memory stick standard. It's not an issue of whether they want to go with memory stick or SD, they are going with memory stick on the idea that all the Sony devices will work together. There are TONS of memory stick products in the US, and Sony is not going to give up the standard because of one little handheld. And the announcement that SD would be on all Palms isn't new, and doesn't come as a shock to Sony - it's not like Palm was ever going to go with memory stick, and Sony has always known that they would have a proprietary standard for the Clie - it's all part of their plan.

There are lots of products that are not available in the US, but interestingly, few of them are Sony. Most of the products that are only available in Japan are ones that are targeted more exclusively to Japanese trends - in particular high-end mini-notebooks, and super small gadgets and cell phones that work on japanese networks. Sony has the marketing muscle to promote products, and they have shown they are dedicated to bringing the Clie to the US. Palm is most popular in the US, and the primary Palm market is here. Sony knows that, and while it will do well with the sales in Japan, the US is too large a market to pass up.

Sony is the Microsoft of Japan. Just because the m500 series is coming from Palm doesn't mean that Sony is going to run scared. Can't you see that this announcement is intended to put Palm on the defensive? How many people are going to buy an m505 if there isn't a 320x320 screen, there is no sound, and there are no SD modules to make up for it? Quite a few, granted, but fewer than if Sony hadn't set the bar a heck of a lot higher with the new Clie.

The PEG700 will come to the US. I wouldn't be surprised if there was an announcement soon after the announcement of the m505.

_________
Syncplicity. Redefining Simple. www.cognitiveroot.com

While I agree that ypu are possibly right, this would be flawed reasoning on Sonys part.

While Palm might have the same resolution as the sony, they will NEVER pursue multimedia like sony has. Palm would be wise to ENCOURAGE Sony to enter the US market with this product. It will cause many who are moving to PPC to stay with palm os. Many who have gone to ppc will come back. Palm OS has the software advantage. One device with Multimedia capability would severely wound PPC. This segment of palms market would be Sonys to OWN.

Also with regard to memory stick, true it is not widely adapted in the US. But the incredible popularity of a device like this would be a way to introduce memory stick to the masses here. This would spur sales of their other products that use the mstick.

Then again you very well might be right.

Pity for us.
Pity for Sony, an opportunity lost.

Sony is a smart company. Sure they lost the Beta vs. VHS battle but they turned around and became a major player in the VHS market. The current Clie' has met with limited acceptance in the US for a couple of reasons. 1) aside from the jog dial it isn't substantially different from any other Palm you can buy for the same money; 2) Sony hasn't been aggressively marketing it. What would cause the Clie' to be a compelling device? Available memory stick peripherals. The differences between the putative M505 and the new color Clie' are what? Sound and possible screen resolution. Both are about the same size, both have rechargeable batteries, both will probably sell for the same amount of money and both sport interface slots for which there are no available peripherals. I'd wager that Sony is putting its engineering dollars behind a suite of memory stick peripherals that will be released simultaneously with a US color Clie'. They don't WANT to play on a level playing field. While memory stick may be a slow starter it has easily 100 X more market share than MMC/SD.

Nate said:
"Can't you see that this announcement is intended to put Palm on the defensive? How many people are going to buy an m505 if there isn't a 320x320 screen, there is no sound, and there are no SD modules to make up for it?"

Very true
The timing here is no coincidence. Look at all the forums, all the people who were ready to part with cash imediately upon the 505s release who are doing an about face.

I expect that around the time of the 505 release we will also get some indication from sony about when this puppy will begin shipping outside Japan.

My guess is that its about the quantity that would need to be made in order to satisfy the HUGE initial demand. Thus the initial role out only in Japan. They dont want to be the "Ipaq" of Palm OS by not being able to meet the demand (am I going to now hear it from the "dont slam PPC" guy.)

But those of us who were ready to buy the 505 sight unseen have something to think about.

This news(as well as the "edge" release)also adds validity to the rumor that the 505 WILL be released next week.

I think Sony is playing the "people want what they can't have" game. Once the palm community is in a frenzy because they can't have the new device it will be released to the us. Wouldn't be surprised if it was released to the US in "Limited Quantities" due to "Production Volumes"

I can see it now, the Clie will hit the US market and instantly become backordered around the
US, faster than you can say Playstation 2. :) The worst part of it all is that Sony is clearly
quite capable of meeting production.

Someone at Sony better do some serious market research -- I'm willing to bet that they won't
even be able to meet demand in Japan. IIRC, the old color Clie sold out in Japan in hours. The
first Aibo robotic dogs that were brought to the US were sold out in under an hour. And the
Playstation 2 is STILL a hard find (although the prices have come down to earth again).

Can anyone say $5000 Color Clie on eBay? :)

I think the Clie is headed here, but it will be a LONG road ahead if they can't meet demand in
Japan. First day of pre-orders will be a good indicator.

I have a few thoughts on the subject.

1) All closed systems eventually die. VHS beat out Beta (even though Beta was better) because of market penetration. PCs beat out Macs (even though the Mac was better) because of market penetration. The memory stick is doomed because it is a Sony, closed system and not a standardized, open-market system. If you think otherwise, I've got a couple of old Beta machines I'll sell ya, cheap. Sony's made this mistake before.

2) Remember the recent remarks from Palm's CEO. The company wants to move towards producing "razor blades rather than razors." (devices being the razors). The comment stems from the concept that software sales are much more profitable than equipment sales. The company wants out of the equipment business. It wants to be more Microsoft-ish as opposed to being more Dell-ish. Notice that Microsoft doesn't make any PocketPCs. Don't be too surprized at all if the new Palm is not all that awe-inspiring. It's probably a device that the company is using to introduce some new technology, but it won't be intended as the end-all-be-all of the hand-held world. Palm will probably want to show off its new razor blades, not sell you another razor. There's little profit in selling the razor.

3) Remember that these devices are going to be good for one year. Palm will introduce the software to run on ARM or StrongARM (or something much faster than a Dragonball) in 2002. That's next year folks!

JBH

It doesn't make any marketing sense that Sony wouldn't sell this new Clie over here in the US. However, it makes a lot of sense that Sony is playing the waiting game with Palm, but with this announcement, it's taken a page out of Microsoft's book on how to overcome the competition - Pre-announce anything that will make people stop from buying your competitors products before yours is released.

Still, I think you guys may be jumping the gun a bit. Don't forget, this new Clie was announced for the Japanese market. Just because of the Internet, that's how we all knew about it so fast. Think about how this would have been during the pre-internet times - this discussion wouldn't have taken place at all!

I say, let Sony do what it needs to do cause I'm sure they're doing what's best for themselves. As far as we are concerned, let's just wait and see what happens...

PalmPlan
"The only constant in life is death"

As we know, this is not the first time that this had happened. Other Palm OS licensees should market (and provide support of course) their devices to the U.S.
which I think should be part of the license agreement with Palm. For example, Kyocera could have confined ther Palm OS based phone to Japan only. Fortunately, they didn't.

But probably Palm will not include such provision since other licensees (Sony, Handspring, HandEra), could design better devices than palm is currently offering (as we all know already!) therefore causing a serious threat to Palm. Imagine a Palm OS based PDA with capabilities like the Pocket PC not to mention the 320x320 screen resolution, this will surely send Palm and Microsoft running for their money!

I think Sony should really make a US version of the Color Clie because competition brings about improvement.

This is indeed a saddening article...

But- at this point in time it is pure SPECULATION!

I am keeping my fingers crossed for this device. If Sony does not release it here... they are really really stupid. IMO...

Sorry, but your article is based only upon pure speculations.
Here's the facts : On March 8th, Sony announced at a press conference in Germany that the CLIé line will be sold in Europe from June 2001.

The original article at the top of this page appears to contain a factual error. As far as I am aware, TRG have made their product available to the general public from square 1. I bought mine 10 months ago direct from their web site, and TRG were marketing their TRGPro devices through their web site since about January 2000 (with no minimum order quantity, or restrictions with regards to 'corporate users'). The TRGPro was the first Palm device with internal mass storage available, anywhere - period.

http://cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-5136591.html?tag=cd_pr

From the article,

"The new unit will go on sale April 7 in Japan, although the company plans to start taking orders on its Japanese Web site next week. A Sony representative said that the new Clie will launch in the United States this year, with an announcement expected sometime around midyear."

There goes the whole theory...

Uhm... Did anybody ever buy a VHS-C camera?
Just wondering, 'cause I'd like to film him/her with my 8mm Sony HandyCam!

the world is going to lose yet another option in the bulging PDA market. sob. and its going to be a company with the stupid "memory stick" stanrard too. weep. my initial reaction when holding a monochrome clie for the first time was that it felt like a cheap plastic piece of junk. no heft to it. i felt like it could twist it and break it in my hands with very little effort. ohwell. no big loss. F sony

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-5136591.html?tag=cd_pr

My pessimism has company, it seems.

http://www.nikkeibp.asiabiztech.com/wcs/leaf?CID=onair/asabt/cover/125731

The above provides additional details I have not yet seen in American accounts. A mention of a 128 MB Memory Stick. Another Sony item that has been seen but is still not for sale...

I think your arguments make no sense and are logically flawed. It would be better served as a reason Sony shouldn't have made it in the first place. You said that this will signal the end of PalmOS Sony PDA, in contrast, I think this is just the beginning; the earlier Clie model aren't popular and this why Sony rethinks, redraws its plan and aims to come out with the better product, entertainment-integrated, to fight with Palm and PocketPC.
Arthur

While I would like the CLIE to stay, because i love Sony's little innovations like the jog dial. The memory stick isnt the greatest thing in the world be cause its only compatable with other sony products, its still nice to have extra memory. Sony has been known to dump other good products in their first generation just because they didnt sell as good as every other product in the market. With the higher prices and little marketing, they really dont have a chance. i have a sony zuma cell phone which shared platforms with a qualcomm phone. there was even a sony model that was EXACTLY the same as the qualcomm one, but qualcomm was marketed and sony wasnt. after the first generation, it was gone no more new models for the U.S. market. How many people have actually seen any advertisements for the CLIE??? or any sony products. i havent even seen any advertisements for sony's mainstream products such as dvd players or the infamous playstation 2. i have seen ads for the ps9 and ps2 games, but thats all. true, thier audio visual products already have enough public knowledge to sell themselves to anyone who know about what they want and sales people trying to push that onto customers, but as for their other products who has heard of them. how many people have heard of Super Audio CD? or how many people know that sony makes a cell phone or an alphanumeric pager? anyone seen the sony gps device anywhere? at any given time i have seen ads directly marketed into my home from ibm, compaq, dell and other computer manufacturers, but who gets ads for sony's vaio line?or that cool ass little sub notebook computer with the built in video camera? if sony doesnt market their products, the general market will never buy thier stuff, especially when the prices are so high. then they kill the new stuff even before it reaches the third generation! this will probably happen to the clie. it would be nice to see a pda from sony that goes to the full potential of what sony can do. unlike palm and visor, which are mostly business products. for me, i dont need a strictly business product in college (i dont need a pda in college, but im foolish :) i want something fun that doesnt cost $600 like pocket pc devices. i hope they see why so many of thier products fail even when they integrate great innovations like the jog dial into already successful products like palm pilots, pagers, caller id modules and computers.

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-5156006.html?tag=mn_hd

-- yeah, but where's the *128MB* Memory Stick?! And when will there be 256MB and 512MB?

I do thank for your article about new Sony Palm OS device, which I call as Sonipa2 (the 2nd generation of Palm device created by Sony).

I do not think the use of Memory Stick and 320*320 resoluiton innovated new frontlighted reflective color LCD is bad idea. Contrary it IS sony to bring high resolution to Palm OS devices under limited power of CPU and OS (I do not disagree they are bad idea, however, not waiting for the release of Palm OS 5.0, it IS actually possible!! Just this is GREAT!). For Japanese, it IS crucial to have high resolution screen and accompanied high resolution fonts to read "Kanji", you may not be aware of this fact using Roman characters. And I think Sony opens the way to use PDF and other display loading formats on your Palm! Think them.

I do think your idea "Sony never sells its Palm lines in US" is totally out of think air. They officially announced within this year they will dispatch this PEG-N700C to US market.

I started web site dealing Sonipa2 in English. If someone interested in information about Sonipa2 under personal basis user experiences, I am merely a enthusiastic Palm user, owing 4 devices, please come and visit me!

http://pal-mac.com/sonipa2E.html

Hey, I was wondering if you can send text messages with the Sony Zuma 200 Cell phone, I have been getting messages but I am unsure about how to send messages, or if it is even possible to do so.