Sharp has confirmed reports received by The Register that the company has dropped its Zaurus Linux-based PDA in the US market.

According to our sources, Sharp USA canned the SL-6000 in the US at the end of September, dropping the device's developer support website.

A Sharp spokesman yesterday confirmed the decision, InfoSync World reports. Sharp will continue to sell the Zaurus line in Japan. The company killed Zaurus support in Europe in 2003. Indeed, the SL-6000 was never officially sold over here.

Sharp's move to focus solely on the Japanese market mirrors similar retrenching operations made by Sony and Toshiba. Sharp last week announced a new clamshell Zaurus - one of the first PDAs with an integrated hard drive - for the Japanese market.

Having launched the SL-6000 in Japan in October 2003, Sharp began shipping the PDA in the US in April 2004, allowing the device only five months to build up an audience. ®

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