Sony eyes Palm

By Matt Whipp

Posted on 6 Mar 2003 at 18:11

Sony CEO Nobuyuki Idei has revealed to IT Web site Always-On his company's strategy including a desire to buy PalmSource and/or Symbian.

Talking of Sony's mobile OS tandem, with its phones using the Symbian platform and its PDAs Palm, Idei said: 'I really want to own either Symbian or Palm ... I want to buy them... My problem now is that as Palm licensee we have to pay them lots of money.'

This strategy of buying into a business rather than licensing the products is reflected in his views on the Sony Ericsson partnership. 'Sony made the joint venture with Ericsson because we want to be covered by their IP patent umbrella, otherwise we have to pay nearly 15 percent to the GSM license holder.' He added that he suspected that for Ericsson the venture was a doorway out of the handset business, as the company is concentrating all its energies on providing the network hardware.

Sony already owns a 6 per cent holding in PalmSource. Palm recently lowered its financial guidance after poor sales of its flagship Tungsten handheld. The company will complete a spin off of its hardware division, Palm Solutions, over the next few months, leaving the PalmSource software arm unfettered by the problems of having to shift hardware and, of course, open for anyone interested in buying them.

To read the full interview, see the Always On Web site.