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Sony's Palm-based handheld in stores in Sept.

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CIOL Bureau
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NEW YORK: Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp. plans to announce that its

handheld computer will hit stores in mid to late-September, retailing at $399,

the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

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The device, the Sony CLIE, uses the operating system developed by Palm Inc.

and will include a range of capabilities that are not widely available on other

Palm-based devices, the Journal said in its electronic edition.

The move signals more competition in an industry that has been dominated by

Palm.

In the last year, Handspring Inc. released its handheld computer and

Microsoft Corp. launched its Pocket PC.

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The CLIE, or Communication Linkage for Information and Entertainment, device

will bundle software allowing users to store digital images and play digital

videos, the newspaper said.

It also has eight megabytes of memory, an expansion slot for additional

memory and a scroll button that lets the user scroll and click the device with

one hand, the Journal said.

Separately, Sony said early Wednesday that it plans to build a semiconductor

chip plant in Japan and would release details later during the day.

In Tokyo, Sony shares were down 250 yen or 2.11 per cent at 11,610 yen at

0520 GMT. The US-traded shares ended Tuesday at 115-1/2, off a year high of

157-but up from a low of 63-3/8.

(C) Reuters Limited 2000.

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