Dear Sony,

You’ve made some of the coolest handheld devices that I’ve ever owned. From your Clie PDA line, I owned the Clie NR70 and the Clie UX50. From your VAIO UX line, I’ve owned the incredible UX180. I’ve owned a PSP which was stolen years ago and I recently purchased another one because I regard it as the best mobile gaming device on the market.

All four of these devices (and certainly many others in your handheld lines) emitted a blinding light of quality, reeked of design excellence, and were bathed in awesomeness. Each of these devices inspired wonder within me. They were true gadgets. Holding them in my hands made me think “wow, this is the future! inch. In school, I used to use the Clie UX50 to type notes and assignments in class, then I’d print it out in the library through the infrared port. That was awesome. And even if it did make me look like a total geek, it made people say “Wow, what is that thing? inch. The Clie UX50 had WiFi and Bluetooth before most people even knew what those terms meant. And a 3.2MP camera built-in (rotating camera, no less) that was on par with digital cameras of the time, and was just one feature of a rich and useful device that I used for years.

You didn’t actually call your Clie line of devices “PDAs inch, you called them Entertainment Organizers, and for good reason. But most of the world wasn’t ready. They weren’t ready to embrace mobile. They weren’t ready to carry entertainment and productivity in their pockets. You’ve since canned your line of Clie PDAs, your UX UMPCs, and your Mylos. The PSP is great, but it becomes outdated with each passing day and is threatened by the likes of the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Those that did accept your devices loved them. There’s a surprisingly active community of VAIO UX fans who have modded and enhanced the UX series beyond what some thought possible, but it can only be taken so far. They keep modding because they don’t want to let go of your awesome device. They don’t want it to fade away and be supplanted by something that doesn’t inspire the same awe.

Things have changed though. You’ve changed, Sony. The blame can no longer be placed on the world. You’ve entered a dark age.

Continue Reading on Page 2…

• WiFi
• Bluetooth
• 480×320 touchscreen
• 3.2MP camera
• touch optimized OS

Sound like a new product? I wish. These are a few specs from the Sony Clie UX50 which was one of the greatest devices I’ve ever owned, and one that I feel was ahead of its time. The Clie UX50 was available at least as far back as 2003, and had the ultimate form factor. It was a tiny clamshell device with a swiveling screen that could be folded down flat over the keyboard when you didn’t need it. Let me just throw you a few pictures so that you can have a look at this beauty:

Images courtesy Cnet

At the time of release, the camera on this thing was comparable to what you’d buy if you went out to purchase a new point-and-shoot camera. The 3.2MP camera swiveled in the bezel as well, making it functional as both a front and rear facing camera. Previewing the shot on the 480×320 screen was so much better than the tiny LCD’s that they had on point-and-shoots at the time.

This thing was slim too. Check out how it stacks up against the iPhone (iPhone is purple, UX50 is red):

It ran Palm OS and Sony had built a pretty slick 3D launcher to replace Palm’s boring menu. If you look at this and you’ve also seen the Nexus One’s application launcher you’ll notice that they look suspiciously similar.

The keyboard was, simply put, the best thumb-board I’ve ever used. Full QWERTY along with a dedicated row of number keys — it was even backlit! The keys were well spaced and offered great feedback. An intuitive sticky-key system made punctuation and shift key usage quick and efficient rather than a pain, like it is on some devices.

The form factor of this device was seriously incredible and I can’t believe that we haven’t seen it well executed since the Clie UX50 (not that I’ve seen anyway). The ability of the screen to swivel fold back around on itself to cover the keyboard was great because you could turn it into a slate in just one second, not only that, but the keyboard also functioned as a stand if you wanted to prop the device up for viewing media.

Now obviously the UX50 is quite old and the hardware is way outdated at this point. If a company came along and could remake the UX50 with snapdragon and Android… I’d have one purchased before you could say “iPad! inch and I think a lot of others would as well. Why oh why did Sony scrap this design and move on to things like the Xperia and Sony Mylo? I wish I could say, but I for one think that they could make a killing with a modernized Clie UX50.