Included are a new portable hard drive-based music player, the world's smallest Windows XP PC, and some new PCs with enhanced AV functions. Also the company revealed the development of a hard-disk recorder with more than terabyte storage capacity.
The Japanese electronics giant, whose overall business had been struggling in recent years, saw the decline of its VAIO PC line and decided to refocus it. By rebranding the VAIO business as "Do VAIO", the company hopes not only to compete with offerings from other Japanese PC and consumer electronics rivals, but also to attack presumed enemies such as Apple Computer's iPod music player and Microsoft's Media Center PC operating system. Here are some of the company's new releases:
Sony incorporated a new interface for multimedia operation called "Do VAIO" into almost all of its notebook and desktop PCs. The company described it as a "brand-new, intuitive operational mode" but, at a glance, it looks very similar to the one that's already included in its PSX game console-DVR hybrid. It can handle a variety of media files such as live/recorded TV programmes, music, photos, and CD/DVD. It can be operated via remote control as well as using conventional PC inputs such as keyboard and mouse.
It looks like a strong competitor to Apple's iPod music player, with a storage capacity of about 13,000 songs in a 20GB hard disk. The music player can handle tunes in MP3, WMA, WAV formats, as well as ATRAC3, which is the company's proprietary format. The music can be transferred from Windows PC via USB. It can continually run for 20 hours. Other than holding and playing music, the portable device connects to a digital camera and can display photos on its 2.2-inch QVGA colour screen.
Despite its small contour -- 167mm (width) by 108mm (height) by 26.4mm (depth) -- and weight of 550g, the tablet-like PC features Intel's ultra-low voltage Celeron M 900 MHz processor and can run Microsoft's Windows XP operating system. It is designed to be manipulated with both hands (just like some portable game devices). With its small LCD (5-inch SVGA), the device can be operated by stylus as well as by built-in buttons and cursor. A detachable keyboard is also an option. It has 64MB video memory, allowing users to connect to a full-size display.
While Microsoft aims to conquer the living room by add TV/DVR functions to PC, Sony appears to be attempting to reach the same destination from the opposite direction. From the outside, "type V" looks just like a LCD TV monitor (with a variety of 20-, 17-, and 15-inch screens), and it sports some advanced components, such as a newly developed MPEG hardware encoder and Sony's proprietary "Motion Reality" video processor. However, it incorporates HDD/DVD recording functions, with as much as 160MB of storage capacity (enough to hold 103 hours of TV programmes) and iEPG TV guidance capability. The machine itself runs on an Intel Celeron chip with Windows XP, and can be operated via remote control as well as by wireless keyboard and mouse.
The machine is still under development but Sony said it will feature more than 1 terabyte of storage with up to seven TV tuners.
Talkback
Big deal, sony are trying to claw back sales. I have a WinXP MCE machine and did not work from day one, I have tried. This kind of new stuff it bound to go wrong, you ask any Japanese person and they will tell you that sony equipment is unreliable - what about their customer service?!
You ask any western shop and they'll tell you that sony are not nice to deal with, their technology will go wrong, so they need to improve their customer service.
samuel
Actually I would agree with that. About two and a half years of a vaio notbook and the mainboard went. Replacement? not worth it as the thing was out of waranty (of course, no three year dell waranties here) and it would have cost a bomb. Solution, but a dell x200. As for the new 'Vaio Pocket' being an ipod killer. Rather unlikely. Remember why people bought and still buy ipods. They are light, small, they have a great user interface and they still have large amounts of storage and work well appart from the battery. You just can't beat that unless you charge half the price or match it (which you can't because you can't just copy the user interface). Even if you charge half the price, like creative almost do, that doesn't guarantee success. These things just aren't computers. I want a fast pc, don't care what it looks like. However, I carry my laptop around, it has to be light, I carry my ipod around, it has to be light. Sony can't match this. Add in itunes which is rather good and apple will still dominate. Well, thats until microsoft compete and portable video supercedes portable audio.....
Other than the fact that you always have to pay top dollar for Sony Vaio computers, there has been nothing wrong with them that would cause the decline in market share that you report. The problem has been LOUSY customer support. How such an international player can support so parochial an attitude to supporting its products I find it difficult to imagine. Even when you have purchased your product in the country of use, the quality of support from Sony, in comparison for example to Dell, is dismal. Staff appear to consider they are doing you a favour even talking to you about your problem. Technical support information is not shared between different regions. The web site is appallingly bad to try to find information about solving your problem and if you contact Sony directly you generally get every assistance short of actual help, and even then the price charged is immediate and extortionate. Keep up the good work, Sony. Just don't be surprised that your former customers go elsewhere.