Sony is expanding the global reach of its upmarket, feature-packed personal digital assistants (PDAs), leaving the low-end market to other makers of hand-held devices.
Masanobu Yoshida, president of Sony's Handheld Computer Co, said the firm was confident of the market strategy, despite the introduction of low-priced PDAs by competitors.
'We are strengthening our position in the middle and high-end markets,' he said.
Sony's main worldwide rival is PDA market leader Palm, which recently released an entry-level monochrome PDA that runs on an old version of its Palm operating system (OS).
Sony licenses the Palm-developed PalmSource OS to run on its flagship PDA, Clie.
Computer giant IBM also has designs in the PDA market, with its move to release a Linux OS-based hand-held computer in partnership with Japanese electronics firm Sharp.