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New PalmOS based Sony hand-held computer to appear in Japan

A new hand-held Sony version of the Palm hand-held computer is due to appear, almost certainly complete with wireless accessories, in Japan on Monday 11th March - according to the IDG news service

Sony specialises in ultra-consumerised versions of the Palm Computing platform,

and all its latest models in the Clie range are equipped with MP3 music players as standard, plus headphones. No details of the new version, due for launch Monday, were available on the IDG web site this weekend, but sources speculated that a version of the Mylo wireless clip-on would be included, based on Japanese iMode wireless data services.

New versions of the Vaio line of computers will also be on display, says the company, but it didn't specify whether these were desktop or portable computers.

It's unlikely that either this Clie, or the Mylo device, will appear in the UK in the near future. The wireless technology that powers Mylo is based on American packet data services which are incompatible with European cellular phone networks; and typically, Sony doesn't release its products into the rest of the world for some months after their Japanese launch.

IDG says the new Clie"will be Sony's first in Japan since it launched the PEG-T400 and color-screen equipped PEG-T600 in November last year."

Palm does sell a wireless-enabled version of its handheld, but that isn't likely to appear in Japan, nor in the UK. That's the model i705. Since Palm has a lucrative deal with Sony, which dominates the Japanese market for Palm-based devices, its decision not to push the i705 is seen as a possible indicator that the new Clie will fill that role.

The bulk of Japan's hand-held devices carry the Sharp label, however, under the Zaurus brand. This range is proving expensive for Sharp to maintain on the software side, and it is gradually shifting the design over to Unix (Linux) with a Java engine to run its software.

Both Sony and Sharp are looking over their shoulders at the rise of the Microsft-designed PocketPC range of hand-helds in Japan, as elsewhere.