[size=14]Sony Breaks Ground With New PDA
Sony's next handheld computer promises to break new ground in September, but even impressed analysts think its price tag may outweigh its benefits.
The miniature computer does it all: helps customers manage their schedules, records and plays back hours of video, takes pictures, sends and receives e-mail, and surfs the Web wirelessly.
Sony has even developed its own Handheld Engine to ensure that the device does it all without taxing the battery life.
Sony is so confident Americans will want this sleek new product -- which folds into a convenient 4.2-by-3.5-inch box and has an eye-catching high-resolution flip-and-rotate screen -- that the company plans to charge $700 for it. The new PEG-UX50 Clié will appear in retail stores in September.
"This UX50 is a revolutionary product going beyond the evolutionary," said Masanobu Yoshida, president of the handheld computing division of Sony. "The UX50 is so small and compact. But we never sacrifice on the experience."
No matter how eye-grabbing and easy to use the device is, analysts doubt people will shell out $700 for it. Nonetheless, they are impressed.
"It's an amazing job at integration -- a heck of a job in engineering," said Todd Kort, an analyst with market research firm Gartner Dataquest. "This will be one of the three most notable products of the year, even if it's not one of the best-selling."
Sony's latest addition to its Clié line of products has built-in Wi-Fi connectivity for wireless Internet access and a Bluetooth radio, which allows users to sync wirelessly with other Bluetooth-enabled devices.
Seamus McAteer, an analyst with market research company Zelos Group, praised the new Clié's design for the way it alerts users to nearby Wi-Fi access points and other Bluetooth devices. When a user syncs with another Bluetooth device, for example, the image of that device appears on the Clié's screen rather than the generic Bluetooth logo.
"It is a very intuitive and user-friendly way to establish a personal area network connection," McAteer said.
The miniature handheld, which runs on the latest version of the Palm operating system, comes with a host of Palm applications, including the basic calendar and date book, plus short instant-messaging service, e-mail and security software. It has an MP3 player and supports all of the Microsoft Office applications. A Memory Stick media expansion slot lets users play up to five hours of continuous video or 16 hours of continuous audio.
Customers have a barrage of choices to navigate through the device: They can use a stylus to point and click on items on the screen or to write Graffiti. There is a scroll wheel on the left side of the handheld -- similar to the Blackberry e-mail device -- and a keyboard that is bigger than that of most Palm-powered devices.
The UX50 contains a 310,000-pixel camera, although analysts and reporters at a recent San Francisco press conference weren't too impressed with it. One reporter complained that he took a picture of someone seated across the table from him, yet the image came out blurry.
Other members of the audience questioned Sony about why it would choose such a low-resolution camera when its previous product, the NZ90, comes with a 2-megapixel camera.
Sony said the picture-taking function of the device was not its focus as much as its "communication" aspect: the ability to instantly send the image to someone else.
Still, Kort and others criticized Sony for not showing off more of the device's video- and picture-taki [...]
