Sony VAIO U70

[cbsimkins]

I just saw a review of the new Sony VAIO U70 and now I believe that I understand why Sony stopped support of the Clie' PDA. It makes for a confusing market in size as this is a bit larger than the Clie' models but runs Windows XP so if you don't mind the size and price, you can ignore the PDA market and get a full Windows computer. This should kill the WinCE market and will affect the PDA market except for those of us who value the small size and utility of the Clie'. But that is where Sony has been going.

CBS

[Pdaman]

links links ??

[DougRB10]

I found some info about it:
http://www.pdabuyersguide.com/notebooks/sony_vaio_U50.htm
http://www.icube.us/Products/sonyux.htm
http://www.dynamism.com/u70/index.shtml

[mr_gkyc]

I can relish why you say this. But have you looked at the price of the U serie VAIO?

http://www.dynamism.com/u70/pricing.shtml

Even allowing for the overhead of a third-party, the U serie can in no way infringe on the PDA market. Plus, this road has been well travelled. Look at HP's first clamshells (95/100/200LX), the Toshiba Libretto, the Sony PictureBook etc. All attempts at miniaturizing a desktop/laptop pretty well fails because of the conflicting requirement between size and feature. That's not to say that there won't be a niche market for device of this type but that I do not see wide-scale adoption of this. Heck, even the PDA market has this problem. (The ascendency of the smart-phone runs counter to the trend but that's only after smart-phone became more phone-like.)

George

[cbsimkins]

I mention price as a factor. But my last trip I took along the Clie' TH-55 as well as my laptop. The laptop, a 5-year old Dell, weighs about 10 lbs. and is carry on to the plane. It cost about as much as the new U70. So if I were not needing a really full desktop replacement Laptop for trips, only something to check my E-mail, reference stuff on the Internet, and maybe do a little writing or stuff on Excel, I would like one of the U70s. But the question is whether or not I would still want the PDA.
My point is that this is what Sony was looking at, I think, when they decided to get out of the PDA market. Two machines of a similar size; they don't know how the U50/70 will sell, and will people confuse it with their Clie' TH55 which is similar in appearance.
Just my opinion but the travel question is valid. I would guess almost a 90% loss for PDAs when one buys a mini-laptop like the U50/70. That is that someone taking a U50/70 along on a trip will leave the PDA at home.

CBS