Sony will cast a line into the Australian handheld market this February to see if anything bites, cautiously releasing a limited number of its CLIE PDAs through its Sony Style outlet at Sydney's Fox Studios.
"We are really just dipping our toe in the water with this first model", said Sony Australia's Director consumer products division, Carl Rose. "Our main strategy for this hot product category continues to revolve around the middle of the year when we will officially launch CLIE into the broader Australian retail market."
Immensely popular in the United States and greater Asia, Rose said that growing interest in the CLIE in Australia encouraged Sony's local arm to push its release schedule forward.
"Our plan for the Sony PDA had been to enter the Australian market in the middle of the year, however when we were recently offered the opportunity to secure a limited number of the PEG-T615C/G by our head office, we couldn't resist," said Sony group marketing manager, Toru Shimizu.
The announcement comes at a time when Microsoft's Pocket PC -- Palm's chief rival in the handheld sphere -- is starting to dig its heels into the global market. Most notable of recent inductees to the Pocket PC brethren, is Toshiba which released its popular e570 handheld into the local market late last year.
Sony won't be deterred easily. Palm claims it increased its share of the local market by 9 percent during the Q4 2001. However, the six-month gap between the initial release and the official release would give Sony plenty of time to switch its strategy.
7%
2%
