i am looking for the manufacturer of the thumb keyboard for the sony
clie:

http://sonyelectronics.sonystyle.com/micros/clie/models/70V.html

a friend who works on similar keyboards said he is 99% certain sony is
not making it themselves, though they may have been involved in the
design along with the manufacturer.

for reference, shin-etsu
(http://www.shinpoly.co.jp/english/business/dpt_rc.html) is an example
of another company that makes thumb of keyboards (i believe they make
the thumb keyboard for the handspring treo and the blackberry, though
not this one for the clie which is somewhat different in constrution
than any other that i have come across)

also in case it helps with search terms, a couple of the parts in the
thumb keyboard are called: dome switches and FPC (flexible printer
circuit or simply 'flex')

thanks.

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Request for Question Clarification by prof-ga on 28 Jan 2003 21:58 PST

1800,

thanks for the question! I don't think the answer to this is going to
be easily available online. I have a contact that should be able to
tell me a definite answer rather quickly. I'll give him a call in the
morning and see what I can find out.

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Request for Question Clarification by darrel-ga on 17 Feb 2003 05:42 PST

Hello--

I have been working on this question for some time now. I've found
that Sony does not, in fact, manufacture the keyboards themselves. But
this information is not readily available.

In fact, one person from Sony told me, "You could take one apart and
try to find out." Is that an option?

darrel-ga

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Clarification of Question by 1800-ga on 19 Feb 2003 10:46 PST

one researcher asked about taking the clie apart to determine the
keyboard vendor.

i have actually done this(including separating the various layers,
etc.) to no avail. there are no useful markings on the flex or any
other part.

1800,

So far I've made a number of calls to Sony, as well as my acquaintance
at Sony Corp. At this point I'm waiting on calls back from a number of
people. However I don't want to keep this question locked in case
another researcher can come up with the answer. Either I or someone
else should be able to get back to you in the not too distant future.

Thanks for the question!

Prof