Sony says the PDA market is declining

Just a few years ago a PDA was a must-have for professionals who wanted an electronic diary or contacts book.

Yet despite increasing technologies, such as wireless internet connection, they have been overtaken by the unstoppable rise of mobile phones.

Today's mobiles offer more and more PDA facilities - and the ability to phone.

"We consider mobile (phone) devices a key aspect of our strategy to converge contents like music, movies and games with hardware and converge contents like music, movies and games with hardware," said Sony.

One device only

Its announcement badly hit the share price of software firm PalmSource, which provides the Palm operating system used on Sony PDAs.

Following the news PalmSource shares fell by 12% in trading in New York.

"As mobile phones bring on board more and more capabilities of the PDA, there is a growing segment of consumers that would just rather buy a phone and only carry one device," said analyst Alex Slawsby of IDC.

PalmSource said it had "respect" for Sony's decision and that while the PDA market was declining, its software was now found in a growing number of mobile phones.

Sony currently has 13% of the global PDA market.