Sony launches 20 inch tablet running Windows 8(presscentre.sony.eu)
presscentre.sony.eu
Sony launches 20 inch tablet running Windows 8
http://presscentre.sony.eu/content/detail.aspx?ReleaseID=7959&NewsAreaId=2
13 comments
As someone who's close to Japanese culture ('married into it') and has loved Sony products in the 90ies this stuff just makes me angry. At this pace Sony will soon need some berserk of Jobs' calibre to turn it around (they still aren't at the point Apple was in '97 but it's getting closer rapidly).
Sony is firmly in the 1993-1995 era Apple where they keep turning out decent products but never hit the high notes they used to.
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.
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.
I have the same concerns about Sony not having visionaries. The situation with Apple + Jobs was unique. Still, Apple's turnaround shows that stuff like that is possible. Sony has still enough assets they could sell in order to fire up R&D for one last hurrah, win or loose. But as you say, they need a visionary. I'd say it must be an outsider, so no Japanese. Renault-Nissan has done quite well with Carlos Ghosn I'd say, at least to me they look more innovative than most other Japanese brands.
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.
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.
It was in the 1990s that Sony was completely dominant in a few markets. Their PlayStation crushed a few upstarts, was probably the reason the then ruling console maker Sega rushed and later abandoned their Dreamcast system, and the PS2 was as much the de-facto console for a whole generation, an unprecedented position.
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...
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...
See, I'd like to think of it a bit differently. If you look at the consumer market Sony does separately, none of it really has much growth potential, even worse, most of it is in a dwindling position.
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.
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.
It's a shame they built a massive, 11-pound x86 desktop PC in a bloated tablet format rather than taking the opportunity to build an ARM-based tablet for WinRT with an unusually large screen. There are probably still quite few issues that need to be solved to make LCDs light enough for a truly mobile tablet at that scale, but Sony is in a good position to at least experiment in that space.
I guessing they would like to run some apps that aren't arm compatible, most desktop apps aren't yet. With the usual price tag sony puts on their computers, I'm guessing that they will market it as a touch screen desktop. Like the HP media center pcs.
Shameless Plug: I built a similar 23" Android "tablet" last year. http://martin.drashkov.com/2011/09/android-megapad-23-androi...
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).
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).
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Wow that looks pretty awesome. I'll bet it would be really nice with Jellybean on it. What are you using to make the touch screen work?
1600x900 is too low for a 20" tablet. The 7" Nexus 7 is 1280×800
I noted this as well. I would have expected it to at least be a 1920x1080 panel since at 20" that is pretty cheap glass these days.
Surprised no one has done one of these with a 27" hires IPS panel.
Surprised no one has done one of these with a 27" hires IPS panel.
You can't compare resolutions between screens that differ in sizes...especially when the viewing distance is different. I can't imagine that you would hold a 20" tablet up to your face as you would a 7" one.
At 5+kg there isn't going to be much holding going on. It's designed for using on a table (or maybe your lap) which as you say means significantly greater viewing distances then an iPad/Nexus 7.
Looks like they just used a standard low-end desktop panel.
No SSD? That's strange at this point.
I've been thinking this extra-large format would be huge in some niches like design shops: a big slab of touchscreen you could pass around and run full on Pixelmator-type software on.
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.
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.
Rectangular with rounded corners. Black bezel that is the same size on all four sides. Metal border. Is this another design patent suit about to happen?
This more like a touch PC than a tablet at about 5.2 kg ...
That's exactly the idea: a semi-mobile desktop tablet. I could see that having usability value when paired with a touch-centric OS. (I'm still waiting on the giant drafting table implicitly promised by Jeff Han in 2006.)
Calling this thing a tablet is like calling a Dell XPS M2010 netbook.
Didn't initially see the weight. That's huge. Ten pounds! I don't even think my laptop weighs that much.
If it wasn't for having a battery, I'd presume it's intended to stay fixed to one place. It's still technically portable, but I don't imagine it going far given the size, nor any practical applications that wouldn't be better served by something smaller.
I would call it a table computer rather than a tablet... :)
If I had the money, I would put one of these on my coffee table.
At 20 inches, this thing could BE your coffee table!
Just hope your coffee mug doesn't start moving the mouse
Title is rather misleading, this is not being marketed as a tablet but rather a full on touch PC.
Sony is a lot like Apple in that they have these designers cooking up crazy designs and inventing new things, and they have people who know how to make something very cheap and inexpensive to manufacture.
The difference is Sony doesn't put these two kinds of people in the same room.
The difference is Sony doesn't put these two kinds of people in the same room.
Ah the VAIO brand name now makes sense!
Could anyone see any estimates for battery life? I seem to be blind.
About as long as it takes you to find the next one from your bag.
Sony is never great for the battery life
It's not a tablet, it's a .. table.
Want this NOW! ...please
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.