Eight months after it pulled out of the U.S. PDA market, Sony has ceased production of the CLIE in Japan and is exiting that market as well.
A spokesman for Sony here said, “Sony is reassessing the direction of the conventional PDA market, and Sony will not introduce any new CLIE handheld models in Japan. Sony is taking this time to examine the conventional PDA business and how it will transition into the future.
PDA sales in general have fallen dramatically as the market shifts over to smartphones. According to NPD Techworld, Reston, Va., U.S. PDA unit sales were down 42.8 percent in December and down 29.3 percent for 2004.
Sony, Sharp and Toshiba have exited the PDA market in the United States over the past year.
