“Manufacturer Everex became the latest defector from the
Windows camp, as the company confirmed it has effectively
discontinued its line of palm-sized PCs based on the Microsoft
operating system.
Everex has abandoned plans for the Freestyle 540, a color-screen
device announced last March but never brought to market. In
addition, the company is discontinuing the monochrome palm-sized
devices it introduced last year, a company representative
confirmed.
Everex is showing no handheld devices at all in its booth here
at the Comdex computer trade show, which is otherwise rife with new
devices and appliances designed to organize information and access
the Internet. The company had long been rumored to be shutting down
its Windows CE-based product line operations.
Although Everex was never a heavy hitter in the handheld market
in terms of sales volume or design innovation, the news is another
blow for Windows CE, which has struggled to make a dent in Palm
Computing’s market-share dominance. Microsoft has lately been
keeping a low profile as it prepares for Windows CE’s next update,
but Everex’s exit–coming on the heels of Philips’s recent
discontinuation of its Nino device–brings unwanted attention to
the company’s operating system for scaled-down Internet appliances
and handheld computers.”