The Sony CLIE PDAs were launched in the year 2000 and they are personal digital assistants, which use the Palm OS to run. They brought a number of new features that weren’t seen on PDAs before, like the displays with high resolution, the jog wheel interface, slots for memory sticks or the audio playback. The majority of the Sony Clie models were made in Japan. Clie is actually an acronym, which stands for Communication, Link, Information, Entertainment.

The one major thing that set them apart from other models running Palm OS was the fact that they were designed to run multimedia well, like audio, video or photos. They were the first to bring this sort of capabilities to the PDA market, creating a new niche in the process. The later models managed to stir up the market, which was beginning to stagnate. They entered the market and covered some areas between the Windows Mobile and the Palm OS PDA’s, which were previously uncovered. They were mainly multimedia models, with a launcher interface for applications that was proprietary of Sony.

The availability of the Clie models was reduced to only Japan, as of 2004, and it was terminated in 2005 completely. PEG-TH 55, PEG-TJ37 and PEG-TJ-27 were the last three Clie models launched by Sony worldwide. As for Japan, they also launched the PEG-VZ90 there, before they stopped manufacturing this line of PDA’s. After Sony stopped producing Clie PDA’s they also didn’t provide any installation drivers, like the software that is needed to hotsync the PDA with the PC. These drivers are available online on fan sites.

The Last Sony Clie PDA Models

Sony Clie TJ27 was announced by Sony in February 2004 and it’s an update for the TJ25 model. It came with 32 Mb RAM and a digital camera that was integrated, with a processor at 200 MHz, Palm OS 5.2.1 installed and a color display with high resolution. The price was $199 and it was an entry level PDA designed for business users.

Sony Clie TJ37 was announced in February 2004 and it was the update for the TJ35 models. It came with WiFi, a VGA digital camera that was integrated, an MP3 player, a 200 MHz process, color display with high resolution and Palm OS 5.2.1. The price for this model was $299.

Sony Clie TH55 was launched in February 2004 and it’s in the upper mid-range of the handheld market. It had an MP3 player, a VGA digital camera, WiFi, high resolution display of 320×480, it was light and slim, with a price of $399.

Sony Clie UX40 & UX50 were PDA’s that brought with them features like Bluetooth (UX40), WiFi, comfortable keyboards, 480×320 landscape displays, plus they could fit in a pocket. They also had VGA cameras and Palm OS 5.2 installed. The price was $699 for the UX50 and $599 for the UX40.

Sony Clie VZ90 is a model launched only in Japan, the last model from this lineup of PDA’s. The VZ90 comes with an organic LED display in landscape mode, with a 480×320 resolution. It also has good multimedia features, WiFi, and its cost was around $999 when imported in the United States.

These were the last models launched by Sony worldwide and in Japan (VZ90), until they took the Clie line out of production, in 2005.