Sony catches tablet fever, wants to be an 'active player'
By Nilay Patel 
posted February 4th 2010 12:26PM
posted February 4th 2010 12:26PM
posted February 4th 2010 12:26PM
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see? Apple, introduces something, and companies don't want to be caught with their pants down so they all scramble to catch up, and make their product better.
in my opinion Apple should have announced the iPad, demonstrated it and gave vauge speficiations (IE screen size and thats it) and when everyone else gets thier shit out, apple whips out the specs and catches everyone with their pants down, Also Flash (I loves me some Adventure Quest)
make a big psp with a touch screen...
i think sony needs to work on their pricing.
Yes!
A Vaio tablet would be an excellent move. If anyone has the tech experience to make a powerful, thin, beautiful tablet, it's Sony. Add to that some Crossbar touch flavour and some PSN integration you you have a tablet worth the hype. We will probably pay through the nose for a Vaio tablet, but still... go Sony!
Cool, so one day there might be a tablet that's even more expensive than Apple's!
I think this is a brilliant idea. Interface similar to PS3 and PSP with the abilities of Sony tech would be pretty cool likely trump apple with design and durability. Multitasking and flash accounted for.
@Thor e
Yes, the hardware would be amazing. Then you try out the software and it'll be the usual Sony shite.
I have two Sony HDTVs. I get great pictures from them, but if I need to adjust anything, the onscreen interface is unintuitive, unwieldy and ill-conceived. Simple things like when I change the volume, why does the onscreen slider have to block out the movie subtitles? Shite, I tell you, shite.
@(Unverified)
Well I don't know about the TVs but I know tha the PS3 and PSP interface is actually known as one of the best interfaces out there. Its like what Palms WebOS is for smart phones. Basically the best there is.
Like most of us, I like shiny rectangle devices with bright screens and the width of a slice of bread. But I honestly don't see the advantage of the tablet form over netbooks. Is it because they boot faster? Virtual keyboards and an unshielded screen don't sound more appealing than the devices I already have. What's the attraction?
@Chris Aubeck The places I can see using a tablet (just me, not anybody else) are browsing the internet in bed, browsing the internet on the couch (leaning back, holding it in one hand, using the other to occasionally scroll), reading eBooks (or magazines, or newspapers), and watching an occasional video (esp. on airplanes, where at least in coach laptops don't work, even netbooks, and iPhone/iPod is fine but a bit small). Again, that's just me.
@Fanfoot Ok, I see, thanks. I suppose as an entertainment device what you say makes sense, though I'm not sure I'd want to hold a tablet for, say, 3 episodes of Lost. I think we can expect a little screen replacement industry coming into business if these do take off, not to mention a boom in cleaning kits.
Will buy if they put Kaz in charge. Anyone else and I won't bother...
Can someone please make a slate tablet pc with a wacom digitizer and multitouch that doesn't lack in the graphics and processor part. I know you Sony can do it. For some reason they always go against the grain with technology. I'm sick of these lackluster pads/tablets. I want a full OS so I can use it for my 2D and 3D work. Then use the multitouch for a touch friendly web experience.
@Rounin
How big would you like it? 7 inch? 15? Or rather the 20++ that any serious 2D and 3D work requires today??
Wait a year or two, then you will be able to buy it from Mr. Chinaman.
It will be utterly unusable, but it'll have touch friendly written over it.
No, seriously: What you are asking for is a niche product. Sony, Apple and Co are trying to create a mass product here.
@Kabe
What @Rounin is talking about is the ultimate portable digital sketchpad (9"- 14" screen would be just fine). It may sound niche, but I think it'd find a bigger audience than you think -- and of course the device would still do everything else -- video, music, books, web, etc.
I think full 3D modeling programs (SolidWorks, 3D StudioMax) may be a stretch, but I don't see why they couldn't get the standard 2D drawing programs (Sketchbook Pro, Illustrator, maybe Photoshop) to work. Incorporating the Wacom tech is key though... Otherwise, it's just like fingerpainting on your iPhone "doodle app".
As a product designer myself, I would buy one Day 1.
Well, Sony is one of the few companies that can do something like this in my opinion. They can do eBooks. They can put movies and TV shows on it. They can do games. It'll be interesting to see which way they go.
If I had to guess I'd say Sony is far more likely to do a closed device like the iPad (perhaps based on Chrome) than an open windows-type device that can run any program. Just based on what they'd want out of it and their track record.
That said, the nice thing about Sony going into this space is they aren't just a me-too company so they might really innovate here. Course the way the often do that is to make everything totally proprietary but, hey you never know...
I assume the ASUS and HP's of the world will go the full OS route, say Windows 7 touch tablets, with optional pen input and so forth. We should have a bunch of these by the end of the year so we'll see if there's a market for them. I'd be more interested to see Sony go the closed route myself. Or of course do both since they're a giant company...
@Fanfoot
"Well, Sony is one of the few companies that can do something like this in my opinion."
Sony couldn't write decent software if its corporate life depended on it. Wait a minute, maybe it does ... oh doom.
Philips did something similar, minus the wifi and browser. Bedside alarm, pic viewer. It plays mp3, videos, shows pics. Every morning my cats wake to bird songs, and they go nuts. And mine cost $40 on clearance. I guess I'm not so adverse to limited ability gadgets afterall.
e-reader included?
As long as Sony can put a good web browser it can be a compelling product.
I've been using Vaio laptops for awhile now. Their quality is excellent, although their prices tend to be quite high. The same problem with their eReaders. I have a Sony Reader that is really superb in design, build quality and ergonomics - but at $399 it is also a good $100 more expensive than the Kindle. That's a problem since in the US people don't care as much about better as they do about cheaper.
Does anyone believe the iphone would have sold as well as it did if it were priced at $699 - like the Sony Xperia X1!
Sony needs to understand the market here a little better - at least in terms of price points.
What companies besides Apple don't seem to get is that success comes from selling complete "solutions" (ie, complete infrastructures designed around specific goals), not just devices. The iPod would be unremarkable without iTunes and the iTunes store. The iPhone would be just another phone without the App store. Similarly for the iPad. In each case, the software running on the device is tailor-made to work very well on the device.
This is why Microsoft tablets have been a failure. Microsoft made just a token effort to extend Windows for tablets, and I haven't heard about any software custom designed for Windows tablets, and there's no infrastructure for directing customers to tablet-specific apps.
Piecemeal solutions generally don't fare so well. I wonder if Sony will understand this?
I saw this thing at CES and it is just a nice tablet-style alarm clock with some apps in it. IT DOESN'T HAVE A BATTERY!!! It has to be plugged in all the time. It's more like a sharper image gadget than a tablet. To say that Sony catches tablet fever is really weird to me when this was shown at CES before apple announced their tablet, and the sony reps there said that it is just a touch based appliance for your night stand.
PSP 2! I wish!
To me, tablets seem like 3D TV, a fad that keeps popping up and keeps failing. I remember tablet computers from the 90s. I remember the Newton. They were all flops. The iPad and this new thing from Sony won't be any different.
What is the point of tablet PCs when we have touch screen cell phones and netbooks that can get the job done just as well?
Wow. Sony really is the best at everything. Good to see them turning things around.
Is that a tablet or an alarm clock?
Ok they could make a killer tablet from the Vaio X; it could be just as thin with a touchscreen instead of the keyboard. And put Windows 7 on there, so it'd be an actual computer and not an oversized phone. Yes it would cost a bomb but it would be the dogs balls.