Sony Corp, the world's second-biggest consumer electronics maker, introduced a mobile personal computer about the size of a paperback book, joining Samsung Electronics Co and Microsoft Corp to create a market for compact notebooks.
The Vaio type U goes on sale on May 27 in Japan and retails for ¥170,000 (US$1,500), the Tokyo-based company said at a briefing yesterday. The computer, which comes with a 30-gigabyte hard drive, weighs about the same as a 428g bottle of juice.
Sony is targeting users who want portable devices that are more powerful than mobile phones and that, like a personal computer, can be used to surf the Internet, e-mail, bank online and perform other functions on the move.
PHOTO: AFP
Samsung's Q1 compact, which was unveiled in March, has suffered negative reviews over its US$1,100 price tag, battery life and software flaws.
"There is an increasing number of people who are using smart phones and mobile phones, but the functions are limited," said Yoshihisa Ishida, head of Sony's Vaio business. "We want to provide something that can fulfill those needs."
Microsoft, which is promoting the "ultra-mobile PC," is betting users may buy the new device as a second or third machine, expanding the company's foothold.
Samsung's Q1 was criticized for shortcomings that reviewers said render the machine almost unusable, according to reviewers Walter Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal and David Pogue of the New York Times.
Sony will introduce another mobile PC late next month that will use NAND flash memory chips to store data, instead of a hard drive. NAND flash memory chips are faster, lighter and more shock resistant than hard disk drives used to store data on portable computers.
Separately, Sony yesterday unveiled a Vaio notebook PC and desktop PC with a Blu-ray high-definition DVD drive, which allows the playback of discs that store at least five times more data than conventional DVDs.
Samsung, based in Suwon, South Korea, is selling the ultra-mobile PCs in the US and Europe, and Founder Technology Group Corp, the No. 4 seller of PCs in China, will sell them in China. Starting next month, Asustek Computer Inc (
Microsoft on April 14 began selling in Japan an ultra-mobile PC that can be operated by touching its liquid-crystal display screen, and is testing the computer at Japanese schools to attract young users.
The Microsoft PC is called the SmartCaddie and is made by PBJ Inc, a Tokyo-based maker of touch panels. It sells for ¥99,800, comes with a 40-gigabyte hard disk drive and weighs 860g, about half as much as a conventional notebook.
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
RSS