News 

'What we are doing here is exactly the same as what we did before (in overseas markets),' a spokeswoman said. 'There won't be any new Clie PDAs but we are not necessarily exiting the PDA business.'

Sony seems more likely to concentrate efforts in telecoms-based devices through its partnership with Ericsson and on the PSP (PlayStation Portable), soon to be released in the US and Europe.

Sony entered the PDA market in 2000 and as been credited with developing many of the multimedia features that are now a standard part of the Palm OS platform.

Sony's decision is yet another blow for PalmSource's Palm OS, whose position as the number-one selling PDA platform was recently usurped by Microsoft's Pocket PC. It also leaves Sharp's Linux-based Taurus devices as the only competition to Microsoft in Japan.

PalmSource tacitly acknowledged that its future lies beyond the PDA when it unveiled the new version of its operating system, Cobalt 6.1, late last year and confirmed earlier this month with the announcement that henceforth it will develop two versions of the OS - one for PDAs and one for smartphones such as the highly successful palmOne Treo range.