In February 2014 Sony announced it had sold the Vaio PC business to an investment fund called Japan Industrial Partner (JIP).
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Before Apple’s MacBooks and iMacs became the gold standard of premium computer design, Sony ruled the computing world with its sleek VAIO computers. Instead, the computers will be sold as Mac alternatives, targeting the same creative types – graphic designers and photographers – that have flocked to use Apple’s computers.
The company will launch their Vaio X Canvas PC in the US in October, the device will be available in Microsoft stores and also online and it will retail for around $2,200. So, out of nowhere, we’ll soon have some VAIO robot toys.
Vaio Corpfaces a tough market, but it has a different strategy for the Vaio than Sony did. Sony’s Vaio computers generally garnered good reviews but were considered too expensive to compete with lower-priced, mass-market rivals.
It’s quite hard to see how VAIO will re-establish growth in a shrinking PC market that is now experiencing one of its largest and alarming drops in the last ten or more years. “We are not interested in cheap models for everyone“, Ota commented, adding that Sony only targeted a wide range of the market, ignoring profitability. The company did not release details about specs, but the version sold in Japan has an Intel Core i7-4770HQ processor and a 12.3-inch display, as well as a detachable keyboard.
We’d already heard about the new Vaio Z Canvas a few months ago.
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In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Vaio chief executive Yoshimi Ota said that his company had plans for further releases in the States, including a “document-size laptop with cellular capability” and perhaps something more left-field. It wants to create wearables, communication devices and consumer entertainment robots and is apparently planning a public stock flotation or sale to another company in 2017.
