Early this summer, Sony made headlines with the announcement that it would stop selling Clie handhelds outside of Japan, a major blow to PalmSource and the Palm platform (see Sony Exits U.S. PDA Market).

Pundits reasoned the continued decline in the overall PDA market as well as Sony's shrinking share contributed to the electronic giant's decision. Although it ranked second in sales behind palmOne for Palm platform licensees, its overall market share had recently dropped to single digits.

According to Om Malik on Broadband, Sony's dwindling share wasn't the only reason it pulled its handhelds from North America and Europe. Those close to Sony say the company was unhappy with the direction PalmSource was taking the Palm platform.

The electronic giant was also concerned with how Pocket PC and Symbian PDAs and smartphones were eating into sales of Palm-based mobile devices. For instance, market research firm Canalys reported last week that the Palm OS, once the dominant mobile device platform, dropped to third place behind Symbian and Windows Mobile (see Nokia, RIM Star as Mobile Device Shipments Soar).

Om Malik on Broadband's unconfirmed report says Sony executives are watching the handheld market closely, so as to examine options for returning to regions ceded to rivals in June. Instead of building handhelds based on the Palm OS, however, these new devices would most likely be based on the Symbian or Pocket PC platforms, or perhaps both. Going with Symbian would mean Sony's first smartphone.

There are no rules limiting device manufacturers to creating handhelds based on one platform. Take Samsung for example. That company sells smartphones built-on the Palm, Symbian and Windows Mobile operating systems.