

Sony launches 20 inch tablet running Windows 8 - anigbrowl
http://presscentre.sony.eu/content/detail.aspx?ReleaseID=7959&NewsAreaId=2

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eckyptang
I've already got the tethered touchscreen predecessor of this (Vaio VPCJ1) and
it's a piece of shit, even with Windows 8 on it. I'd have been seriously angry
if I'd bought it but I was given it from someone else who was angry that
they'd bought it.

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.

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DeepDuh
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).

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astrodust
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.

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DeepDuh
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.

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astrodust
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...

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DeepDuh
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.

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mortenjorck
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.

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twinsnes
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.

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martythemaniak
Shameless Plug: I built a similar 23" Android "tablet" last year.
[http://martin.drashkov.com/2011/09/android-
megapad-23-androi...](http://martin.drashkov.com/2011/09/android-
megapad-23-android-tablet-for.html)

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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hammersend
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?

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lobster45
1600x900 is too low for a 20" tablet. The 7" Nexus 7 is 1280×800

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sachingulaya
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.

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rrreese
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.

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IanDrake
No SSD? That's strange at this point.

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jpxxx
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.

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SoftwareMaven
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?

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octopus
This more like a touch PC than a tablet at about 5.2 kg ...

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debacle
Didn't initially see the weight. That's huge. Ten pounds! I don't even think
my laptop weighs that much.

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ConstantineXVI
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.

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madoublet
If I had the money, I would put one of these on my coffee table.

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nickyp
At 20 inches, this thing could BE your coffee table!

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sliverstorm
Just hope your coffee mug doesn't start moving the mouse

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nightski
Title is rather misleading, this is not being marketed as a tablet but rather
a full on touch PC.

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astrodust
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.

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mparlane
Could anyone see any estimates for battery life? I seem to be blind.

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MatthewPhillips
About as long as it takes you to find the next one from your bag.

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mike_ivanov
It's not a tablet, it's a .. table.

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DocFeind
Want this NOW! ...please

