Sharp’s Zaurus: Linux Enters Handheld Platform Wars

For those who thought Linux had no chance in mobile devices, Sharp clearly begs to differ. With its latest Zaurus handheld, the
SL-C860, Sharp could have a product with legs.

Sharp, along with Casio, owned the PDA space a few years back, but it virtually vanished as a player once Palm and Microsoft entered. Then a little
over a year ago, Sharp made a comeback with its Zaurus SL-C760, which ran an embedded version of Linux and had a number of interesting applications.
The handheld wasn’t particularly reliable, and synchronization was ugly, but the hardware design (with a sharp screen–pun intended–and keyboard
implementation that would have made Research in Motion Ltd. jealous) created a very mixed-value proposition.