LAS VEGAS, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Consumer electronics company
Sony Corp <6758.T> <SNE.N> announced a pact with Palm
Computing, the developer of the PalmPilot handheld computer, to
license the Palm operating system for a new line of handheld
electronics products.
Sony will use the software for wireless, consumer
electronics devices that will include electronic organizers but
also include a wide range of mobile devices that access network
services and content.
Palm Computing, a unit of 3Com Corp.<COMS.O> said it will
use Sony's Memory Stick technology in the PalmPilot computer
line. Sony's memory stick technology is a portable, re-
recordable device, about the size of a stick of chewing gum,
that can store digital data, audio, music and pictures.
At the Comdex computer show, Sony executives did a live
demonstration with the company's Memory Stick technology,
recording a live performance by guitarist Steve Vai, an artist
on Sony's Epic label, played back on a portable Memory Stick
Walkman. Sony also showed another Memory Stick device the size
of a pen.
Sony's president and chief executive Nobuyuki Idei gave a
keynote address at Comdex, one of the industry's biggest shows,
where he talked about Sony's three gateways into the networked
society - the Sony Vaio personal computer family, the set-top
box and its new video gaming console, the Playstation2.
"Some call Sony a hardware company, some call it a media
company," Idei said. "What we are and what we will be is a
broadband entertainment company."
Sony said that it will be the new Sony Playstation, which
will be launched in Japan next March and in the U.S. and Europe
in the fall of 2000, that will be the driver for higher speed
network access in the home, referred to as broadband.
"We believe it is the Playstation2 and its compelling
software which will accelerate the deployment of broadband
networks into consumers homes," said Kazuo Hirai, the president
of Sony Computer Entertainment America. "We are poised to take
this to the next level of entertainment."
Sony did a demonstration of the new Playstation2, which is
in a sleek black box, showing clips from video games where in a
car race, the graphics are so high performance that they
simulated a visible heat haze from the cars driving around the
racetrack. Another game, called Dark Cloud, showed the hair and
the clothes of the boy character blowing in the wind.
Sony's Idei also noted that the U.S. is behind Japan and
Europe, which have a considerable lead in the deployment of
high-speed networks to the home.
He also hinted that Sony may have a challenger to Nintendo
Co. Ltd.'s <7974.OS> popular Pokemon game characters.
"I hate to mention that Pokemon is very popular in this
country," Idei said, adding that he thinks the Sony Playstation
team will fight back with another character.
((Therese.poletti@reuters.com, SF Bureau, 415/677- 2542))
REUTERS |
