Sony launches 20 inch tablet running Windows 8
presscentre.sony.eu
presscentre.sony.eu
It's heavy, slow, noisy, unreliable, hot and poorly engineered (the stand broke after about a week - 2x cheap self-tapping screws into plastic bearing the ENTIRE weight), the PSU started whistling after a couple of months resulting in a warranty job.
The kids use it as their "I don't care if they break it" computer.
Excuse the cynicism, but I doubt this will be any better.
They're effectively rudderless, with the television, game, movie, electronics and various other key enterprises not firing on all cylinders and often moving in opposing directions.
This is akin to Apple that, for a period that went on far too long, they were making dozens of different models that often differed in little more than price and badging on the front, with models specific to certain channels and retailers.
The problem is they don't have a visionary they can re-adopt. Changing a company as diverse as Sony, with so many competing interests and a typically Japanese corporate culture that's as flexible as someone suffering from rigor mortis... Prognosis isn't good.
What's so maddening about Sony is that they still hold so many good cards in their hands, they just don't have a game strategy.
Their Trinitron TV technology was the envy of pretty much everyone, consumer or competitor, and was an essential component in any tech-savvy household. Well, at least until LCDs took over, and Sony seems to be a second rate player since they don't make their own panels.
Their cameras and video recording equipment were still superior to anything on the market, with Betacam being the unquestioned standard for broadcast video. Then digital pretty much squashed that.
Sony's always been a fighter even when it didn't work out. The MiniDisc was a bust. Their MP3 players never amounted to anything because of their stubborn insistence on some awkward, native encoding format until it was too late to matter. Their MemoryStick was too big, too expensive, just plain too Sony to ever catch on.
Now they're desperate for a hit that isn't coming. The PS4 has zero hope of being the dominant platform, not with Microsoft still committed, with Nintendo nipping at their heels, and Apple positioned to throw their hat in the ring as well.
To fix Sony you'd have to tap into what little cachet they still have left. People like their stuff, their style, their charm. If only you could curtail their obnoxious arrogance and inability to focus on making a few amazing things instead of a whole plethora of junk...
The thing is, Sony is in a bit of a unique position because of their combination of home electronics, game electronics and media. The question they should ask themselves is: What advantage do we have over our contenders when we combine those assets.
I thought Android is a much better choice of an OS, seeing as how many apps would already scale up nicely. I still think this is a valid product category - various specialized kiosks and smartboards will soon be replaced. I guess we'll see whether it'll be Android or Win8 (or some Apple thing).
Surprised no one has done one of these with a 27" hires IPS panel.
And then you find out it's a PC with a mechanical HDD and I get sad. Ship this in five lbs and an obscene battery life for $1000 and you're cooking with gas.
The difference is Sony doesn't put these two kinds of people in the same room.