Windows Phone Thoughts: Sharp To Cease Production Of The Zaurus Line

"TamsPalm has posted the sad news that Sharp is ending production of it's line of Linux Zaurus PDAs in February. Apparently, parts will be available for a long time from third party suppliers, which is a testament to the dedicated following that has been built by the products...But if you have been wanting to use a new Zaurus, or would like to pick one up for the novelty and gadget factor, this may be your last chance outside of eBay."



The Sharp Zaurus line was pretty innovative for its time - one of the first PDAs with a built-in hard drive and keyboard, VGA screens, clamshell design with flip-over screen (preceeding the Universal by a couple of years), and cool stuff like USB host. The fact that it ran Linux meant that there was a lot of expandibility in terms of software and geek credo, even if the built-in apps weren't always up to scratch. The Zaurus' main downfall was price, and the fact that availability was largely limited to Japan, though you could get some models through specialist importers like Dynamism.com. This really sounds like the market for standalone PDAs is dying out, unless you have some value proposition that makes sense to consumers like GPS - and even that is now turning up in smartphones. So R.I.P. Zaurus - you will be missed.

Obit at jkOnTheRun