Sony reluctantly pledges to enter netbook market, pouts

With Toshiba and Samsung entering the netbook fray soon, there aren't many laptop manufacturers left on the benches. Sony and Apple are the biggest holdouts, and while the House of Jobs probably thinks you should stop being cheap and just pony up for a MacBook Air already, Sony at least seems to be on the verge of adding something affordable to its line of performance ultraportables. At a recent press event, Mike Abary, Sony's Senior VP of Information Technology Products, was asked about netbooks and said: "Sony has to participate because consumers are our core competency. We have to participate." That's quite a change from his stance earlier this year, in which he called netbooks "a race to the bottom," a reluctance now being spun as "letting the pioneers in the market make the mistakes." Regardless, a mini-Vaio should make every budget-conscious Sony fan happy -- all three of you.

[Jhizzle @ Sep 16th 2008 12:56PM]

Yes....it would make me happy.

[eggothewaffle @ Sep 16th 2008 1:04PM]

I ain't no Sony fan, but it would make me happy as well.

[OneLove @ Sep 16th 2008 1:09PM]

We will offer an atom netbook at a competitive price of $2000

[Christian @ Sep 16th 2008 2:12PM]

I'm one of the three, hahaha and it sure would make me happy!

[Andrew @ Sep 16th 2008 2:32PM]

I just spent $2000 on a Sony ultraportable last week and I assure you it has no Atom inside. I also have the genuine $350 Acer netbook which does. The difference between the two is huge in everything except weight and to some extent size (13" versus 10"). Is the difference worth $1600? If you appreciate the extra power and features, I think so.

[Juxtah @ Sep 16th 2008 2:39PM]

The macbook mini will cost twice as much as everything else on the market, run an old version of OSX and have fanboys flocking to it saying it's the best on the market...

[Boudu @ Sep 16th 2008 3:30PM]

Sony does make their notebooks small and attractive, every time I'm in the market the Vaio always gets my attention, but I never end up buying it due to the price. If they can make a solid attractive netbook, that is actually priced right then it could really make a splash. However, there is no point in paying the 'Sony premium" price and they can't charge a dime over the competition.

[konshuss @ Sep 16th 2008 12:57PM]

there won't be an apple netbook, ever.

[kccboy2004 @ Sep 16th 2008 1:24PM]

i agree. apple is losing its way. this is the big market now; netbooks. apple is so far out of sight, eating the dust of the real players.

[schlehke @ Sep 16th 2008 1:26PM]

Your right apple will never add a "netbook" to their line up. Instead they will introduce some other piece of trash that accomplishes the same thing for 3 times the price with a glow in the dark apple symbol on the outside (macbook air anybody??)

[spass @ Sep 16th 2008 1:27PM]

That's too bad...
I am pretty sure my next computer would be an ultraportable Atom based.
I have been holding off buying aything ultill I see the Apple and Sony alternatives.
I have no idea why it takes them this long to enter the market, as to me it's clear they have to have Atom based notebooks in their line. Almost every computer manufacturer has one.

[iEye @ Sep 16th 2008 1:28PM]

Yea, And there was never a plan for a flash based iPod... or a Mobile device...

Apple is probably 90% finished the design, and there is a Non Disclosure that mentions "Death" for anyone working on it....

[waiownsyou @ Sep 16th 2008 1:40PM]

They have a Mac Mini... is a MacBook Mini entirely out of sight?

Like all companies, Apple will enter the netbook market if they see it as extremely profitable. It's not a matter if, it's a matter of when.

Also, cocks.

[strider_mt2k @ Sep 16th 2008 12:58PM]

I actively pledge to not support their efforts. :p

See? It works out for everyone!

[mirakutea @ Sep 16th 2008 12:58PM]

And it'll cost twice as much as other brands :).

[Andrew @ Sep 16th 2008 2:48PM]

As long as "other" brands does not include Apple, that is.

But yes, it will cost extra and not necessarily with a good reason. It's a big brand name. That's why branding is valuable. On the flip side it may actually look better than others.

[Hellaphunt @ Sep 16th 2008 1:00PM]

Netbooks...

[captain underpants and the bringdown gang @ Sep 16th 2008 1:00PM]

wait.. the MBA is not a Netbook?

[mushy @ Sep 16th 2008 1:11PM]

You are correct, but it is required to mention Apple as much as possible on this website.

[konshuss @ Sep 16th 2008 1:18PM]

are you serious?

[spass @ Sep 16th 2008 1:30PM]

Is the MBA the Apple alternative to the atom based noteboks?

If yes, then Apple is really stupid.

[Zak @ Sep 16th 2008 2:11PM]

spass: Considering the MBA was released before any atom-based netbooks existed, I'm going to have to say no. The MBA is not a direct competitor to a lot of netbooks anyway because of screen size. It's a 13" ultraportable, like the X300.

[Zeus.:God @ Sep 17th 2008 11:45AM]

Or, as I like to call it, 13" ultra-cripple.

[decapitor @ Sep 16th 2008 1:05PM]

The percent difference and therefore the perceived difference between 1500-1700 is much lower than say 500-700, so the style based markups for both Sony and Apple don't translate well to the netbook arena, ergo they have not been eager to join.

[i_am_rich @ Sep 16th 2008 1:07PM]

nonsense - TZs are small enough to be considered netbooks - I want one, they're HOT :-)

[Almadi @ Sep 16th 2008 1:10PM]

Ohh, I see what you did there.
You might as well say that Apple should throw in a free iPod Nano 1st generation with their netbooks.

[DaveS @ Sep 16th 2008 1:21PM]

TZ's may be small enough to netbooks, but they are very different machines. They have much higher-res screens, more ram, better processors, optical drives, stellar battery life, wifi and BT, first class construction....

Its hard to see how a make-it-as-well-as-you-can ultraportable will translate into a make-it-as-cheap-as-you-can netbook without damaging the Vaio brand.

[Almadi @ Sep 16th 2008 1:08PM]

Blu-ray drive, with an option to use an external screen please!!!!

[farfisa @ Sep 16th 2008 1:25PM]

Would you settle for a UMD drive and micro projector?

[Almadi @ Sep 16th 2008 3:31PM]

Oh GOD NO!!! UMD is a vampire with 3 stakes up its *** and looking in horror at an impending sunrise.

I like the whole netbook craze, but I'm pretty sure a whole lot of students who rely on them also subscribe to a DVD rental service like Blockbuster or Lovefilm.
Having an optical drive (even a slot loading one) on those 9 and 10 inch models would pretty much increase sales a whole lot.

[Ninjakamster (PS360 FTW!) @ Sep 16th 2008 1:08PM]

Bring back the C1 Picturebook series Sony! : )

[Jeff Jones @ Sep 16th 2008 1:29PM]

Neat little machines, but the sell used on ebay now for what a new netbook goes for. The cult of Sony is almost as entrenched as the cult of Jobs.

[Meester Anderson @ Sep 16th 2008 1:26PM]

Here we go, another cookie cutter 1.6ghz atom 16 GB flash netbook

Sony needs to do something to stand out, unlike the massive dissapointments from Dell and Lenovo.
How about this:
45nm Core 2 instead of atom: increase in price and battery consumption worth the massive increase in power.

Basically take the acer aspire with the 80GB hard drive and 6 cell battery, swap out the atom for a core 2 and I am all over it, even if it costs $100 more and has a half hour less battery life. Sony should love this because it differentiates them from the pack and thus lets them charge a higher price and avoid the "race to the bottom" they hate so much.

[Chuchi @ Sep 16th 2008 1:26PM]

It would be nice to see something different in this arena. A multi-touch tablet, perhaps? I've read a few blogs regarding netbooks and the biggest bitching point seems to be that they're an "around-the-house" solution. Why can't they make netbooks that work as an extension of our homes (SMS/MMS receipt and response from a remote cell phone, home theater control, maybe some DVR functionality to view content on a media center)? They could throw in some neat software that auto-updates with stored pics on a remote computer/drive? I'm sick of dragging everyone to an outlet every time I need to show them pics on a digital frame. Alas, Sony is bogged down by the inherent need to make everything proprietary, poorly-executed, and virtually closed off to 3rd-party developers. I smell yet another ho-hum, increasingly over-priced netbook on the horizon.

[sockatume @ Sep 16th 2008 1:26PM]

It's one thing for them to stay out of the game until it's safe, it's quite another for them to actually state that they're not pioneers in this market, compared to Asus, Acer, HP etc. etc. Where's Sony's pride and striving for innovation gone?

[glen @ Sep 16th 2008 1:28PM]

Well, considering I am on a Sony 'netbook' right now, I consider this item pretty useless, yea, mine is 3 years old, and when it came out I am sure it was 2 grand, but its the same size as all the other netbooks, plus it has CDR/DVD, 2 usb, firewire, PCMCIA card, audio in and outs, memory stick slot, modem, net, and wireless and a real 40 gig hard drive

Sony PCG-TR3A

[Chuchi78 @ Sep 16th 2008 1:36PM]

LMAO you hit it on the nail! Sony's been making "netbooks" with comparable specs for years. The only specs that aren't consistent are the price and the inclusion of an optical drive (a price jump from a $550 Eee to a $2k Vaio ultra-portable is completely unjustifiable). The bastards just need to lower their prices already!

[charliex @ Sep 16th 2008 2:56PM]

Still running my TR2A everyday, its slightly larger than my aspire one, and a lot better in most respects. i almost bought the new TZ but couldn't bring myself to buy a laptop with an embedded sprint setup, how did they end up with sprint ?

[Andrew @ Sep 16th 2008 2:58PM]

Unjustifiable? Perhaps it is excessive but a netbook won't even play a 720p mkv file, let alone anything more demanding. A $2000 VAIO (or something similar from Lenovo or even Dell) does the same thing a well spec'd desktop does (games, software development, picture editing, HD media playback, media storage etc.). A netbook can do basic communications tasks and some light cloud computing, in bursts (thanks to small screen). If you don't need extra features and don't use it much (squinting at the screen gets old fast) then the netbook is the right choice.

What we need is a netbook with a foldable larger screen. We CAN squeeze enough power into small packages but our eyes are still the same and do not appreciate tiny screens. That's not going to change, so we need to find ways to have collapsible screens.

[Poom @ Sep 16th 2008 3:03PM]

Chuchi, what have you been smoking... Since when does this indicate that Sony has released an equivalent to a netbook? do you know what netbooks are usually like? I mean... optical drive and normal harddisk??? -_-" That's more like ultraportable laptop instead of a netbook.

[Poom @ Sep 16th 2008 3:03PM]

Chuchi, what have you been smoking... Since when does this indicate that Sony has released an equivalent to a netbook? do you know what netbooks are usually like? I mean... optical drive and normal harddisk??? -_-" That's more like ultraportable laptop instead of a netbook.

[simon @ Sep 16th 2008 1:27PM]

Boy, you guys really don't like Sony do you.

[ethana2 @ Sep 16th 2008 2:14PM]

If company.name != "Apple" {
hate(company);
}

[Zak @ Sep 16th 2008 6:13PM]

ethana2: Oh right, that must be why threads about Apple products are filled with 4 pages of illiterate Apple haters. Because people here love Apple so much. People like you, am I right?

[bolomkxxviii @ Sep 17th 2008 6:16AM]

Let's see, rootkits, exploding batteries, minidisc, UMD, Memorystick, Betamax, Bluray, did I miss something? Yes, a lot of us don't like Sony.

[Dr Zoidberg @ Sep 16th 2008 1:54PM]

"Sony has to participate because consumers are our core competency."

Well if that's the case then where the hell is my BC PS3?

[Anthony @ Sep 16th 2008 1:54PM]

Haven't you heard? They renamed the mylo (again). It's now the mylo Netbook. Done.

[Christian @ Sep 16th 2008 2:14PM]

Until it runs XP or linux, it's not quite a netbook yet...
hmm maybe that's why apple hasn't gone netbook yet?

[Anthony @ Sep 16th 2008 2:44PM]

Technically it is linux, I believe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qtopia

[Jon Acheson @ Sep 16th 2008 2:20PM]

Re: the "race to the bottom" statement:

Has time proved him wrong? We've seen an explosion of EEEPC-alikes, most of which seem to share the flaws of the original, and most of which are way above the original $299 price point. They all seem to have cramped screens and keyboards, and instead of being a breakthrough for Linux, they seem to be going back to Windows XP instead. And of course none of them have DVD drives.

If all there was at the $500 price point was netbooks, it would definitely be a step down in terms of features. That hasn't happened yet, but the market does seem to have moved in that direction.