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Sony sets $399 organizer
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August 30, 2000: 9:57 a.m. ET
Electronics maker will launch device into hand-held market in September
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Sony Corp. said Wednesday it will launch a hand-held personal organizing device next month that will cost less than $400 and be the latest entry in an increasingly competitive market.
The device, the Sony CLIE, will use the Palm Inc. operating system, but will surpass other Palm-based devices on certain multimedia capabilities, such as letting users play digital videos. Users will be able to store digital images as well.
Sony's device would be the latest hand-held device to hit store shelves after months of increasing competition in the market. In the past year, Handspring Inc. showed off its Visor hand-held computer and Microsoft Corp. launched its Pocket PC devices.
Sony's machine is aimed at the high end of the market, with many rival devices selling for far less, generally in the $150 range.
In addition, Sony's decision to go with the Palm operating system is not great news for Microsoft, which has been having difficulty pushing its operating system for the Pocket PC, a Wall Street Journal report said, noting that Palm-based machines currently have a lock on 75 percent of the market for hand-held devices. Microsoft's device is also priced in the high end of the hand-held market.
 The CLIE will come with eight megabytes of memory and an expansion slot for additional memory. A button will give the user the ability to scroll and to initiate device commands with one hand. Among other features, the device will come bundled with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery and hot-sync cradle.
"This is more of a lifestyle product and takes it away from being a pure organizational tool," Russell Paik, Sony's vice president of hand-held products, told the Journal.
Sony (SNE: Research, Estimates) American depositary receipts rose $2.81 to $115.50 in New York Tuesday but lost ground in Tokyo Wednesday. Microsoft (MSFT: Research, Estimates) lost 38 cents to $70.94 Tuesday. 
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Sony
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