Sony Notebooks To Have Touchscreen Windows 7, Playstation Network, Perhaps Be Cheaper?

By Benedict Wee

In an interview with the vice president of the Sony Information Technology Products Division -Mike Abary- tech blog Laptopmag was given details on the new features and marketing plans for their future notebooks.

When asked about their new netbook -the VAIO W- and its higher price point compared to other netbooks in the market right now Mike admitted that all Sony products would have to be reviewed price-wise in order to remain competitive. This is in light of a report in May made by Sony predicting their 110 billion yen loss for the financial year ending March 2010.

"I’ll acknowledge we have had those issues across the board on all of our products and there has been a paradigm shift in the marketplace that has rendered Sony products to be seconded guessed in terms of its competitiveness by consumers. It means we have to do a better job of being relevantly competitive in terms of price points, but it doesn’t mean we are going to abandon our position in the marketplace."

Does this mean we'll get to see cheaper consoles and notebooks soon? The Playstation 3 costs around NZ$729 and plays most games the Xbox 360 does but the latters' low price tag has attracted more consumers into buying their console instead. The price for the new PSP Go has also been criticized by many game journalists and gamers to be too expensive and Sony computers are known for having Apple-like prices.

When asked about having the Playstation Network (an online service for the Playstation 3 and PSP which allows users to download games, movies, television shows and music) integrate with Sony computers Mike said that the VAIO team are working on bringing it to not just Sony PCs, but all of them.

"We are absolutely talking about that internally. The PlayStation network is growing. We believe that network will have an option with VAIO PCs or any PCs for that matter. What we are trying to do is collaborate with our peers at PlayStation in that regard."

He also highlights the point that though they are currently focusing on just providing movies and television shows via the PSN, video games are a possibility in the future

"That is a possibility but we are concentrated more on movies and TV content. We find casual gaming to be interesting for PCs and we are driving right now to establish our role in that area. We believe this segment of end user of causal gaming is growing we can address that marketplace in a way that is unique on VAIOs."

Lastly, when queried on touchscreen notebooks running Windows 7, Mike hints we could expect them between when Microsoft launches their new OS and the holiday season.

"There are certain things that will be native on Windows 7 that we are certainly going to take advantage of. Without giving too much away, we think touch on Windows 7 is something we find compelling and we will certainly introduce touch into some of our products at the launch of Win 7. You will see touch capabilities introduced on VAIO products that take advantage of Windows 7."

Looks like Sony has some interesting stuff in the works. Me? Am just waiting for the PSP2 to be announced later this year *fingers crossed*

Source:

Laptop - Sony Promises Touchscreen VAIOs for Fall, Playsation Network Support Coming