The tech blog Engadget reported Wednesday that Sony (NYSE:SNE) plans to enter the tablet PC battle with its own release in 2011 to offer its own tablet PC in 2011, the S1.
Like Motorola’s (NYSE:MMI) Xoom, the S1 will run on Google’s Android Honeycomb software. The tablet will feature a 9.4-inch screen and sport a peculiar curved form-factor, with the top of its rear curved over recalling a folded over book or magazine.
It is also, naturally, a vessel for Sony’s myriad media services and stores, including the subscription-based Qriocity Music Unlimited, the Sony Reader e-bookstore, and (at least in Europe) Sony’s new streaming video service. Like the company’s Xperia Play smartphone coming via its Sony Ericsson venture, Sony is making video games a fundamental hook for the S1, with each tablet containing original PlayStation games and access to the Android-based Playstation Suite development platform — Sony will have the same games here as they will on all their mobile devices.
There’s a lot to like in Sony’s new product announcements, which includes an NPG portable gaming console coming later this year. All three devices are targeted to a specific consumer with cash to burn—the Xperia Play to pre-college consumers, the NGP to the lucrative devoted gaming market, and the S1 to the tablet-buying professional (though most likely European or Japanese, as Sony’s media services like Qriocity don’t have much cache in the U.S.)
The use of Android rather than a proprietary operating system and the guarantee of identical product availability across all the platforms show the kind of forward thinking Sony was in dire need of just five years ago.
But investors looking to get in on the ground floor ahead of a flood of new mobile products should be cautious. The development, production, marketing and release of just one major product is a monumentally expensive undertaking.
It’s questionable whether Sony can have all of these products co-exist with one another, especially considering that all of them will have such high prices. Though no official prices were announced, it’s rumored that the S1 tablet will run for $599 this fall, giving it value over at least the Xoom (rumored to retail at $799 or more) if not Apple’s iPad.
The Xperia Play, however, is rumored to run close to $400 (based on value in a current Sony contest) which will put it well outside of the youth market that Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) has been so successful in capturing through low-tier models sold through Verizon (NYSE:VZ).
It’s also speculated that the NGP could retail for as much as $400, making it the most expensive portable gaming machine in history. Price is enough of a hurdle, but Sony will also need to convince consumers that there’s enough unique content in these devices to justify their existence. If the same services run across all three, why wouldn’t consumers just go for the cheapest device?
At the time of publication, Anthony John Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here.
